On the UOC-MP’s Declaration of Independence

Metropolitan Onufriy (Berezovsky), Head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Former Moscow Patriarchate

By Bp. Joseph (Ancient Church of the West) 

Yesterday, May 27, marks a turning point in the war in Ukraine. I first became aware of this event through the simultaneous release of the headline "Ukraine's Moscow-backed Orthodox Church Cuts Russia Ties" on multiple news sites on Facebook, which all reported that the UOC-MP had severed its subordinate status under the Moscow Patriarchate and declares that it is now a self-governing Orthodox Church. 

The article from RISU was put into English by Google Translate. The first several paragraphs describe the change to its charter, but portions below are the most relevant:

9. Aware of the special responsibility before God, the Council expresses its deep regret over the lack of unity in Ukrainian Orthodoxy. The Council perceives the existence of a schism as a deep painful wound on the church body. It is especially unfortunate that the recent actions of the Patriarch of Constantinople in Ukraine, which resulted in the formation of the "Orthodox Church of Ukraine," only deepened misunderstandings and led to physical confrontation. But even in such crisis situations, the Council does not lose hope of resuming dialogue. In order for the dialogue to take place, the PCU representatives need to:

- to stop the seizure of churches and forced transfers of parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

- realize that their canonical status, as enshrined in the "Statute of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine", is in fact non-autocephalous and significantly inferior to the freedoms and opportunities in church activities provided by the Statute of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

- to resolve the issue of canonicity of the hierarchy of the PCU, because for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, as for most Local Orthodox Churches, it is obvious that to recognize the canonicity of the hierarchy of the PCU it is necessary to restore the apostolic succession of its bishops.

The Council expresses its deep conviction that the key to the success of the dialogue must be not only the desire to restore church unity, but also the sincere desire to build one's life on the principles of Christian conscience and moral purity.

10. Summing up the results of the work done, the Council offers a prayer of thanksgiving to the Merciful Lord for the possibility of fraternal communication and expresses hope for an end to the war and reconciliation of enemies. According to the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian, may "grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son the Father, in truth and love" be with all of us, especially brothers and sisters in the Risen Christ.

The elephant in the room right now is the fact that Ukraine had its own autocephaly already, the result of Ecumenical Patriarch Gregory VII granting the Polish-Lithuanian-Ukrainian Church complete independence in 1924. Moscow took Poland after WWII and physically destroyed the Tomos, declaring it null and void, but these actions had no spiritual effect on the self-headed Church. The Patriarchate, which moved to Ukraine to escape the Nazis in the early 1940’s, then went into a time of martyrdom under the Soviets, but the Greek Orthodox world did not question their validity. They then escaped to the US in exile for 50 years, where they built large communities, beautiful cathedrals, and had a reputation for holiness and canonical regularity. When they returned to their homeland in 1992, they moved their patriarchate from exile back to Kyiv, where the reestablished the throne of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. 

Due to heavy pressure in 1997, the Ecumenical Patriarchate joined with the Moscow Patriarchate in declaring the Kyivan Patriarchate invalid and uncanonical, believing itself to have the power to rescind the autocephaly of a canonically established and indigenous national Church by patriarchal fiat. This move happened at the same time that the EP started to insist that it was not ”Primus Inter Peres” (first among equals), but was “Primus Sine Partibus” (first without peers) and began publishing canonical commentary to this end at Holy Cross Seminary in the US. Thus, a new paradigm of papal power was borne in the Greek world, and the EP began its quest to redefine history into a vortex of absolute canonical authority, redefining Canon 28 of the Council of Chalcedon to mean that any area not already claimed from ancient days by one of the Pentarchy was canonically under its direct jurisdiction. This meant that all of the “New World” and East Asia were the canonical territory of the Ecumenical Patriarch. This new paradigm for Ecumenical Patriarchate-based autocephaly flies in the face of actual history, however, and is an anachronistic projection. 

Not long after this, the EP began the project to reincorporate the Ukrainian Church into itself, which they successfully did in the US as many of the remaining Ukrainian (“South Bound Brook”) perishes entered the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in a Slavic-rite Vicariate which they called the “Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the USA,” again in 1997. They also began negotiations with bishops of the KP to abandon their own Patriarchate and align with them in Ukraine as early as 2007. 

In 2018, the Ecumenical Patriarchate promised to regularize the relationship of the Kyiv Patriarchate with the “canonical churches” in communion with itself by declaring all Ukrainian orders valid and receiving all Ukrainian clergy belonging to our Episcopal Succession and canonical practice into full communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate. However, instead of doing what it had promised to do, the Ecumenical Patriarchate orchestrated a “bait and switch” with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, taking over properties with the help of the Ukrainian government, and “retiring” the rightful hierarchs and replacing them with young bishops loyal to their own interests. They granted new recognition, but in the process, deleted the rank of Patriarch and replaced it only with the status of Metropolitan. In this hostile takeover, the Ecumenical Patriarchate did exactly what the Moscow Patriarchate had done in Poland in 1948, and they parsed the Church between themselves. Patriarch Fileret, the rightful hierarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, pulled out of this unjust and deceptive agreement, and reinstated the Holy Synod of the Kyiv Patriarchate, maintaining fidelity to the original Tomos and the Orders that they had received, which had been recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate as acceptable for transfer. 

So, now there are now three “autocephalous” churches in Ukraine. This is where the whole problem of attempting to cancel autocephaly and reinstate dependency in order to further political ends becomes laughably transparent and shows the canonical facade for what it truly is - sinful men playing games with the resources of the local church to increase power and abuse the faithful, who have silently endured the misuse of Church authority for hundreds of years. Which of the Churches are canonical? All of them. Which Churches will be recognized by “World Orthodoxy?” That will be determined on which side of the gaping schism between Greek and Slavic Churches one finds themselves. 

What really should happen is that Moscow Patriarchate and the Ecumenical Patriarchate both realize that autocephaly cannot be canceled, that grace comes from God and is only canonical recognized (not stemming from the canonical process itself, which always slightly differs from Church to Church) and therefore, the Ukrainian Churches must reunite under its original canonical hierarchy - the now despised, mocked and martyred Kyivan Patriarchate - and that they cannot cancel God’s grace based on their political expediencies or the desires of their patriarchates who were and always will be “First Among Equals” and nothing more.

May God have mercy on us all!