CONSTANTINOPLE AND THE PERSPECTIVES OF LIBERATION FOR UKRAINIAN ORTHODOXY

Yesterday, VIII Orthodox Council took place in Crete. It is noteworthy, that we live in a time of extraordinary event in the Orthodox world and the attention of a large part of the Ukrainian Christians was drawn to this event.

The contradiction between the Russian Orthodox Church (the ROC) and the Ecumenical Patriarchate entered the stage of almost open conflict. The ROC forms its own circle of churches-satellites for which the Kremlin political intrigues have a higher priority than the ancient traditions of the Orthodox Church. Moscow expects to gain the unofficial status of a biggest Patriarchate with all the levers of influence; but the problem is that it cannot reach the goal without Ukraine.

Although the fact, that the Ukrainian issue wasn't on the agenda of the VIII Council, it gradually becomes almost the most urgent topic in today's Orthodox world. And the political context for the Ukrainian Church to regain its independence is changing rapidly and is more favorable than ever before.

The strategy has been chosen by the Kremlin in a religious field was quite clear and predictable. In fact they have used the same trick as in the Donbass and Crimea with further using of the so-called "Minsk process," in other words the plane remains the same - first the Moscow's proxies creates the uncertainty and inner conflicts, and then the Kremlin "pulls the blanket over itself" through hypocritical calls to start a dialogue to delay the time, legitimize its misconduct actions and circumvent the law.

In contrary to pliant European liberals the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has decided to chose more decisive way and showed that prestige of the Constantinople throne is undisputable and this cannot be not be bought or exchanged for material preferences. 

The main conclusions to be drawn from the situation are:

- Constantinople has launched a reanimation process of itself as a center of the Ecumenical Orthodoxy and rise the long-standing issue of religious agenda;
- it seems that looming conflict between the maternal Church of Constantinople and the Russian Orthodox Church, which despite the canons and traditions, tends to dominate in the world Orthodox church;
- the ROC has formed its own range of satellite patriarchates, mostly in the post-USSR area. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate is a  vivid example of that. Well known fact is that the UOC MP in Kyiv performs the Kremlin's political tasks;
- The Orthodox world became two pole: on the one hand we have the traditional classical canonical Orthodox Church (Constantinople, Alexandria, Jerusalem), on the other hand - the "Political Orthodoxy" (Moscow & Co.). This can result in the emergence of a significant humanitarian and civilizational differences and distances;
- Ukrainian Orthodox Church gains new "window of opportunity" for its official recognition, which would means liberation of the Ukrainian faithful Christians (more than 30 million of people) from a influence of politized Moscow patriarchate.

To sum it up we can emphasize a number of encouraging aspects: the figure and character of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew; wisdom and authority of Patriarch Filaret; and, finally the fact that the Moscow's ROC is increasingly gains a features of puppet "republics" (Donbass, Abkhazia, Transnistria) that it had established in neighbouring countries.

Recall, recently the Ukrainian parliament supported an appeal to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew with a request for autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. This is a very important historical event since 1686, when the Kyiv Church was attached to the Moscow Patriarchate by force. In the case of this decision, Ukraine will be able to overcome the schism in the country, promoted by the representatives of ROC.

Source: Третя Позиція