ORTHODOX The Autocephalous Ukrainian Church against the “Russian World”

The synod of the Orthodox community led by Metropolitan Epifanyj has appealed to Patriarch Bartholomew to condemn Kirill for the “ethnophyletist heresy.” The clash with the other Orthodox jurisdiction, which has always been linked to Moscow, although it formally distanced itself from it after the Russian invasion.

kyiv () – The Synod of Bishops of the Autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Pzu), led by Metropolitan Epifanyj (Dumenko), has appealed to the Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew II (Archontonis), on whom he has canonically depended since received the Tomos of autonomy in January 2019, with the request that he condemn the Russian Orthodox Church led by Moscow Patriarch Kirill (Gundjaev) for the heretical ideology of the “Russian world.”

Many speakers at the Synod stressed that such a conception, expressed by the Nakaz (Decree) of the Universal Council of the Russian People, an association that flanks the Church of Moscow, must be considered a “Eurasian political ideology” and an “ethnophyletist heresy” (an expression of “religious chauvinism”), and its support by the Patriarchate is a betrayal of the true spirit of Orthodoxy. For this reason, the Ukrainian bishops ask Bartholomew to ask Kirill to publicly renounce this ideology.

The Synod met in the Refectory Hall of the Kiev Caves Lavra to reiterate the “particular gravity of these Russian theories, which constitute a crime against God, against the Church of Christ and against all humanity, put into practice by “the layman Vladimir Putin, who has thus excluded himself from the ecclesial communion.” The meeting of the Ukrainian bishops with the explicit condemnation of the Russians also represents a particularly decisive moment in the internal controversy with the other Orthodox jurisdiction, Upz, which has always been linked to Moscow, although it formally distanced itself from it after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The civil authorities of Ukraine, from the presidency to the government and parliament, are putting pressure in many ways on the Church of Upz, which will be banned on Ukrainian territory if it does not radically break its relations with Russia. Several of its exponents, including metropolitans and bishops, have been arrested accused of collaborating with the invader, and many churches and monasteries have been emptied of pro-Russian exponents.

Until before the war, the Church of Upz represented a clear majority of Ukrainian Orthodox, with more than 12,000 parishes and about 50 eparchies, twice as many as the Church of Pzu. Now, the Synod of Upz has published the data of the autocephalians, which currently number 45 eparchies and 9 thousand parishes, with more than 80 monasteries, both male and female. It is difficult to make the comparison, since the communities dispute the entire country, but the impression is that the two Churches are now equivalent in number of structures and faithful. Many churches in Upz have gone over to the other side, and Metropolitan Epifanyj has managed to consecrate several new churches in recent years, despite the devastation of the war.

The autocephalous Church has also opened several institutes of higher learning, including five Theological Academies in kyiv, L’vov, Volynsk, Užgorod and Ivano-Frankivsk, and several seminaries and institutes for lay people, even signing an agreement with the National University of Chernivtsi to open the Chair of Theology, in which 1,200 students are enrolled. 5,700 priests serve in Pzu, with 63 bishops and numerous collaborators in different sectors. As Epifanyj declared, “even in the anomalous conditions of our existence, with the ongoing war and the persistence of the non-canonical jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine, our Church is the true spiritual guide of the Ukrainian people.”

The Autocephalous Church maintains constant dialogue and collaboration with the Greek Catholic Church, led by Major Archbishop Svjatoslav Ševčuk, which also represents a community with more than 3,000 parishes and many faithful, and also with the Latin Rite Catholic Church, with 800 parishes under the direction of the president of the Episcopal Conference, Monsignor Vitalij Skomarovskyj, bishop of Luc’k.