Metropolitan Theodosiy of Cherkasy and Kaniv, in an interview with the Greek news agency Romfea, said Patriarch Bartholomew’s decision to create the OCU was one of the causes of the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
According to Metropolitan Theodosiy, when speaking about today’s canonical crisis in world Orthodoxy and the persecution into which the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has been plunged, “there is no doubt that all of this was brought about by the shortsighted and self-confident decision made at the Phanar in 2018.”
The UOC hierarch pointed to the Ecumenical Patriarch’s personal responsibility for the tragic developments in Ukraine. “By deciding to create the ‘Orthodox Church of Ukraine,’ Patriarch Bartholomew created a deeply problematic situation,” Metropolitan Theodosiy recalled. “That step was followed by a severe escalation – mass seizures of churches, beatings of believers, court proceedings against clergy, and an attempt to eliminate the Ukrainian Orthodox Church itself.”
The Cherkasy hierarch recalled that the Phanar ignored the will of the majority of Orthodox believers in Ukraine. “At the time, members of the UOC Holy Synod, as well as a large delegation of our Church’s faithful and clergy, traveled to the Phanar and presented Patriarch Bartholomew with hundreds of thousands of signatures asking him not to establish a new jurisdiction in Ukraine, especially one with such a background. Nevertheless, the decision was made,” the bishop said.
According to Metropolitan Theodosiy, the actions of the Patriarchate of Constantinople violate Christian canons and offend the religious sensibilities of believers around the world. The Phanar’s decision legitimized schismatics without repentance or canonical ordinations. “Yesterday’s schismatics, without repentance and without lawful ordinations, suddenly replaced the legitimate canonical Church across an entire Orthodox country – Ukraine – with a single stroke of the pen at the Phanar,” Metropolitan Theodosiy stressed.
As the UOJ reported, Patriarch Bartholomew had claimed that 30 UOC hierarchs would join the OCU.
Never forget the evil Bart did.
“ The Cherkasy hierarch recalled that the Phanar ignored the will of the majority of Orthodox believers in Ukraine. “At the time, members of the UOC Holy Synod, as well as a large delegation of our Church’s faithful and clergy, traveled to the Phanar and presented Patriarch Bartholomew with hundreds of thousands of signatures asking him not to establish a new jurisdiction in Ukraine, especially one with such a background. Nevertheless, the decision was made,” the bishop said.”
Nick why was my comment not posted?
You said the same in other words in the first one. Yelling and screaming at the top of our lungs doesn’t help anyone. Good argumentation makes the difference.
The main reason why the UOC was established in 1990 was because the Ukrainian Greek Catholics began seizing Orthodox churches.
In 1989, Ukraine’s Council for Religious Affairs issued a landmark ruling permitting Greek Catholics to officially register their communities and restoring the legal rights that had been forcibly taken away from them by the Soviets. This was what started the church seizures. The Moscow Patriarchate reacted to this by establishing the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in 1990 and with broad powers of autonomy. It wasn’t entirely enough. The following year in 1991, the newly established UOC would unanimously ask for her autocephaly. This request was, of course, rejected by the Moscow Patriarchate, and the result was further schism, with some bishops leaving the UOC and self-proclaiming autocephaly.
One has to wonder, though, what would have happened if the UOC was not established in 1990. Most likely we would have seen a lot more Orthodox churches seized by the Greek Catholics. However, not granting autocephaly to Ukraine in 1991 was what ultimately brought about the schism that we still see today.
Joseph, you again try to force the facts into a mold that helps you. The restoration of the Greek Catholic (Uniate) Church, together with the revival of Ukrainian autocephalous Orthodoxy, helped force the Moscow Patriarchate to reorganize its Ukrainian Exarchate as a substantially self-governing UOC in 1990. Political independence then made that arrangement unstable. The UOC’s unanimous 1991 request for autocephaly represented an attempt to create a canonically recognized independent Orthodox church for the new Ukrainian state; Moscow’s refused in 1992. But this proves that UOC has remained autonomous from Moscow and exposes the barbaric prosecution of the Zelensky regime. In any event, the time of reckoning is near, both for Zelensky and for Bartholomew and his Deep-state handlers.