"Who better than us to defend the position of the Mother Church, which is under pressure from Moscow," - Metropolitan of the OCU
This was stated by Metropolitan Dymytry of Lviv and Sokal of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in an exclusive interview with Religiyna Pravda.
According to him, Ukrainians have not yet sufficiently understood and analyzed the main theological and canonical messages of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, pronounced during his visit to Ukraine. One of the issues that require a deep canonical and theological assessment is the annexation by the Moscow Patriarchate of the Kyiv Metropolia in 1686, which at that time was separated from the same body of the Mother Church of Constantinople.
"What are the main theological and canonical messages or messages of Patriarch Bartholomew that we would need to think deeply about? The first is the role of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in establishing the autocephaly of the Churches of Ukraine, Russia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Poland, Albania, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, which were formed from the canonical and jurisdictional body of the Mother Church of Constantinople. The second is universal Orthodoxy – a combination of incongruities in the spirit of rapprochement in differences. The third is to provide once again a deep canonical and theological assessment of the annexation by the Moscow Patriarchate of the Kyiv Metropolia in 1686, which at that time was separated from the same body of the Mother Church of Constantinople. The fourth is an understanding of the essence of autocephaly as such, to which the Church of Constantinople has the exclusive right and the purpose of granting it to a mature local church. And finally, the role of primacy in the honor of the Ecumenical Patriarch, which consists in sacrificial service, and not in the pomposity of the authorities and the promotion of various poisonous Imperial ideologemes, as is proposed by the neighboring Patriarchate,” the hierarch said.
He stressed that Ukraine should defend the position of the Mother Church, which receives a barrage of false accusations from Moscow.
“As you can see, there are more ecclesiological and theological issues here. But why do they, in my opinion, now arise and are connected with the Ecumenical Patriarchate? Because the issue of autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church has greatly strained the church relations within the Constantinople-Kyiv-Moscow triangle. And who better than us to defend now the position of the Mother Church, which gave us such a gift, and in response receives a barrage of false accusations from Moscow,” the Metropolitan said.
