The State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy Service and Freedom of Conscience (Ethnic Policy Service) is receiving numerous requests from clergy and representatives of monastic communities regarding a meeting that took place between the leadership of the Ethnic Policy Service and members of the Episcopate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in unity with the Moscow Patriarchate.
This information was reported by Ethnic Policy Service.
Representatives of the clergy and monastic communities claim that they are not being informed about the content of this meeting, which has led to numerous speculations on this topic.
In this regard, Ethnic Policy Service informs that such a meeting indeed occurred. During the meeting, the members of the Episcopate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, in unity with the Moscow Patriarchate, acting with the blessing of the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Onufry, expressed their desire to receive written recommendations regarding the actions that could indicate the church's departure from the Russian Orthodox Church. Such recommendations were formulated and sent the day after the meeting.
The members of the Episcopate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate promised to consider these clarifications within a two-week period. Since no response to the letter has been received within either the two-week or three-week period, and considering the significant interest in this matter within the religious community, Ethnic Policy Service deems it possible to publish the letter that was sent to the representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate.
"To Metropolitan Klyment of Nizhyn and Pryluky and Archbishop Sylvester of Bila Tserkva,
Your Eminences,
I am sending this letter following our meeting on May 31, 2023, at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, where you expressed a desire to receive written clarifications regarding the actions of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that unequivocally indicate its departure from the Russian Orthodox Church, which is an active participant in the Russian military aggression against Ukraine.
Such actions could include:
Publishing an official document from the church authority or individual(s) authorized to speak on behalf of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church regarding its departure, along with all its dioceses, synodal institutions, deanships, monasteries, spiritual educational institutions, brotherhoods, sisterhoods, parishes, and missions, from the Russian Orthodox Church.
Receiving statements from bishops and clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church who are members of the Russian Orthodox Church's Episcopate, its Synod, Synodal institutions, and the Commission for Inter-Council Presence, regarding their departure and publishing these statements.
Officially informing Autocephalous Orthodox Churches about the departure of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from the Russian Orthodox Church.
Imposing church penalties and/or excluding individuals who directly participated in the annexation of Ukrainian territories, willingly collaborate with Russian occupiers, and sanctify weapons used to kill Ukrainians from the Episcopate and clergy.
Requiring the church authority responsible for expressing the Ukrainian Orthodox Church's position on current issues in society and evaluating the most important events in the field of inter-church, interfaith, and interreligious relations to publish an official position regarding the teaching of Patriarch Kirill on absolving sins of the invaders who perish in Ukraine, his blessing of war against Ukraine, as well as the actions of church authorities concerning the annexation of Ukrainian dioceses of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
It seems that such actions could indicate the severing of direct subordination relations between the UOC and the ROC, which has become one of the instruments of the war unleashed by Russia against Ukraine."