ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH: “CONSTANTINOPLE NEVER CEDED THE TERRITORY OF UKRAINE TO ANYONE”

[Ромејац]

Constantinople, July 3, 2018

In a move that is sure to ruffle some feathers, His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople has declared that the Ukrainian Church is, in fact, still within his canonical jurisdiction.

 

The patriarch again broached the topic of the ongoing schism in Ukrainian Orthodoxy in an address following the 40-day memorial for Metropolitan Evangelos of Perge on Sunday, July 1, 2018, at the Patriarchal Church of St. George in Constantinople, emphasizing the patriarchate’s desire to heal the schism.

As the website of the Ecumenical Patriarchate reports, Pat. Bartholomew began by stating his desire to see the problems in Ukraine come to a peaceable conclusion, given Constantinople’s historical role as the Mother Church for Kievan Rus’: “For, as the Mother Church, it is reasonable to desire the restoration of unity for the divided ecclesiastical body in Ukraine, a faithful population of tens of millions, baptized and enlightened directly through the providence and missionary activity of our Ecumenical Throne.”

His All-Holiness has expressed such a sentiment in the past, and all Churches are in agreement with the historical role of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the desire to overcome the schism.

However, the patriarch stepped into controversial territory when he declared that the Ukrainian Church actually belongs to his canonical jurisdiction even today:

Let us not forget that Constantinople never ceded the territory of Ukraine to anyone by means of some ecclesiastical Act, but only granted to the Patriarch of Moscow the right of ordination or transfer of the Metropolitan of Kiev on the condition that the Metropolitan of Kiev should be elected by a Clergy-Laity Congress and commemorate the Ecumenical Patriarch.

As evidence, he pointed to the tomos of autocephaly given to the Polish Orthodox Church in 1924 by the Ecumenical Patriarchate which states that the separation of the Metropolitanate of Kiev from the Ecumenical Throne “in no way occurred according to the binding canonical regulations.”

His assertion is interesting, given that the patriarch recently told a delegation from the canonical Ukrainian Church that he wants to help, but not to interfere in the affairs of another Local Church.

That Ukraine belongs to Constantinople is sure to come as a surprise to the Ukrainian Church itself, which recently stated that it is perfectly capable of carrying out its evangelical mission as an autonomous body within the Moscow Patriarchate, and to the Russian Church, which has been the spiritual home of the Ukrainian Church since 1685.

Moreover, the Russian Church had already rejected such claims when His Eminence Metropolitan John (Zizioulas) of Pergamon presented the theory at the recent meeting between hierarchs of Ukraine and Constantinople.

Addressing the Ukrainian delegation at the June 21 meeting in Constantinople, Met. John put forth the theory that Kiev was never truly transferred to the Russian Church, and that the relationship they did have was temporary in nature, as Interfax-Religion reports.

His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk has responded that there is no documentary evidence for such a claim:

We have recently done a lot of work in the archives and have found all the available documentation of these events—900 pages of documents in both Greek and Russian. They absolutely clearly show that the Metropolitanate of Kiev was included in the composition of the Moscow Patriarchate by decision of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and that a temporary nature to this decision is nowhere stipulated; no timeframe was set.

Met. Hilarion added that the Patriarchate of Constantinople has never challenged Kiev’s inclusion in the Russian Church over the past 300 years.

He also noted that the territory of the Metropolitanate of Kiev was much smaller at the time that it was transferred from Constantinople to Moscow, including neither Odessa, nor Donetsk, nor Crimea. “Accordingly, the current Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate is a completely different territory than the one that was then appended.”

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Ukraine’s two schismatic bodies await a response to their appeal to the Ecumenical Patriarchate for a tomos of autocephaly for a Local Ukrainian Church.

http://orthochristian.com/114119.html

[Драгана Милошевић]

Преведи бар једном.

[Ромејац]

Васељенски патријарх: Цариград није никада предао територију Украјине никоме

Мислим да је довољан и наслов (не могу да преводим цео текст - извини), да се схвати суштина...

 

[александар живаљев]

пре 21 минута, Ромејац рече

As the website of the Ecumenical Patriarchate reports,

Стварно боље да се не преводи. Провидно је, али непреводљиво јучерашње саопштење Васељенске:

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew: “As the Mother Church, it is reasonable to desire the restoration of unity for the divided ecclesiastical body in Ukraine”

 

His All-Holiness expressed the Ecumenical Throne’s unabating interest for the healing of the Ukrainian ecclesiastical problem and the restoration of unity for the divided ecclesiastical body in that country during his address in the Chamber of the Throne, following the 40-day memorial of Metropolitan Evangelos of Perge, which took place on Sunday, July 1, 2018, at the Patriarchal Church of St. George at the Phanar. His All-Holiness reminded everyone present that the Church of Constantinople, which in the past has worked to successfully resolve difficult ecclesiastical problems—always guided by what is beneficial for the people of God and the preservation of Pan-Orthodox unity—strives even today for the definitive resolution of the ecclesiastical issues in Ukraine.

Referring to the personality and contribution of the late Hierarch of the Ecumenical Throne, who worked as a member of many Synodal Committees to resolve various problems, “with history, the canons and rationality as his criteria,” Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew specifically highlighted the following:

Even today, if he were amongst us, he would have consented to the current and timely matter of settling the Ukrainian ecclesiastical problem. For, as the Mother Church, it is reasonable to desire the restoration of unity for the divided ecclesiastical body in Ukraine, a faithful population of tens of millions, baptized and enlightened directly through the providence and missionary activity of our Ecumenical Throne. Besides, as in the past, the Church of Constantinople—while exercising its canonical rights and pastoral care—worked to successfully resolve difficult and complicated ecclesiastical problems, always guided by what is beneficial for the people of God and the preservation of Pan-Orthodox unity. We should simply remember the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s recent participation and support in the problems that afflicted the Churches of Jerusalem, Cyprus, Albania, and so on. In this spirit, the Great Church of Christ of Constantinople, speaking the truth in love, strives even today for the definitive resolution of the ecclesiastical issues in Ukraine.

Subsequently, His All-Holiness reminded the congregation about spiritual and canonical rights of the Ecumenical Throne on the Ukrainian territory:

Let us not forget that Constantinople never ceded the territory of Ukraine to anyone by means of some ecclesiastical Act, but only granted to the Patriarch of Moscow the right of ordination or transfer of the Metropolitan of Kiev on the condition that the Metropolitan of Kiev should be elected by a Clergy-Laity Congress and commemorate the Ecumenical Patriarch. Listen to what is mentioned in this regard in the Tome of autocephaly, which was granted by the Mother Church to the Church of Poland: “For it is written that the original separation from our Throne of the Metropolis of Kiev and of the two Orthodox Churches of Lithuania and Poland, which depend on it, and their annexation to the Holy Church of Moscow, in no way occurred according to the binding canonical regulations, nor was the agreement respected concerning the full ecclesial independence of the Metropolitan of Kiev, who bears the title of Exarch of the Ecumenical Throne...”

In conclusion, His All-Holiness once again referred to the late Metropolitan Evangelos of Perge, saying that everyone remembers his spiritual ministry, as well as the compassion and love that he exhibited towards every person.

Those present included Archbishop Damianos of Sinai, Pharan and Raitho, Hierarchs of the Ecumenical Throne, relatives of the late Metropolitan of Perge, Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, clergy, members of the Omogenia and pilgrims from abroad.

News Release from the Press Office of the Ecumenical Patriarchate