On behalf of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate, Patriarch Filaret addressed Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan), the clergy and laity of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) with a call to continue a constructive dialogue in order to establish one national Orthodox Ukrainian Church
“On behalf of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate, I address you again with a call to continue a constructive dialogue in order to overcome the church divide,” stresses the address.
“We are invariably ready to renew the dialogue and we wait for constructive efforts of UOC-MP in this regard,” stated the head of the Kyivan Patriarchate.
“At the same time, we are convinced that the only correct way to renew the unity of the church is a dialogue that is ultimately aimed at the establishment of one national Orthodox Ukrainian church centered round the Kyivan throne,” reads the address.
The document also notes that the recent events in the Ukrainian religious life “allow one to see once again that as far as the 'Ukrainian question' is concerned, the Moscow Patriarchate acts not according to the canons and not for the good of Orthodoxy but from the viewpoint of the political interests of retaining of power in the 'Russian world.'
“Therefore, any calls to the Kyivan Patriarchate to come under the umbrella of Moscow are hopeless: the hierarchy of ROC (Russian Orthodox Church) repeatedly showed and continues to prove with their actions in Ukraine, Estonia, Moldova, Georgia and the whole Ecumenical Orthodoxy that the main thing for the Moscow Patriarchate now is not the good of the church but the establishment of the Russian World as a political tool of influence of Moscow in the post-Soviet space,” reads the address of Patriarch Filaret.
“We desire church unity in Ukraine. But it does not equal subordination to the Moscow Patriarchate. An increasing number of people in Ukraine, including your surroundings, understand that,” notes the document.