UOC-KP Metropolitan Andriy on Orthodox Unity and German Catholic Aid

23.07.2001, 22:04

Metropolitan Andriy (Horak) of Lviv and Sokal (Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate [UOC-KP]) held a press conference in his eparchy's administrative premises on 18 July. He talked about the results of the recent meeting of the Ukrainian Orthodox jurisdictions held in Zurich, Switzlerland regarding Church union and his recent trip to Germany at the invitation of the Roman Catholic community there.

Commenting on the Orthodox discussions held in Zurich from July 13 to 16 (see RISU news of July 23 for details) and, in general, on the union of the UOC-KP and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC), the metropolitan admitted that all the conditions necessary to create a single Ukrainian Orthodox Church are now present. "The process of creating a single Church depends not on Constantinople or Moscow but on us. I want to say very frankly that in the nearest future, a year or a year and a half, a single Orthodox Church in Ukraine will not happen. This will be the sin of two national Churches, the UOC-KP and the UAOC. "But the biggest sin will be of that Church which will not want to make compromises and unite. No third party can unite us; we should unite ourselves here. Constantinople can grant the decree [regarding the Church's acceptable canonical status] only to a great, united Orthodox Church. Right now the issue at hand is the beginning of the common eucharistic concelebration of hierarchs of the two Churches." As reported in RISU on July 16, the UAOC and the UOC-KP have agreed to allow their priests to celebrate the eucharistic liturgy together and are discussing concelebration at higher levels. Metropolitan Andriy also spoke of his trip to Germany from 29 June to 10 July at the invitation of the community of St. Mary's Roman Catholic parish in Reine.

The purpose of the trip was to discuss the organization of humanitarian aid for the Lviv-Sokal eparchy of the UOC-KP with groups at St. Marys's which are helping Eastern Europe. During his trip Metropolitan Andriy visited the firms Suwerlack (in the city of Billerbeck) and Apetito (in Reine). He also met the burgomeisters of the two cities. On 30 June he met with Cardinal Meissner and on 5 July with Dr. Reinhard Lettman, the bishop of Muenster. The information for this article was provided by the Information Service of the Lviv-Sokal Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate.