Unification council of the Eastern Orthodox churches of Ukraine
The Unification council of the Eastern Orthodox churches of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Об'єднавчий собор українських православних церков, lit. 'Unity Sobor of Ukrainian (Eastern) Orthodox Churches') is a council which was held on 15 December 2018 in the St Sophia's Cathedral in Kyiv. The council voted to unite the existing Ukrainian Eastern Orthodox churches (the UOC-KP, the UAOC and parts of the UOC-MP) through their representatives, on the basis of complete canonical independence. All the members of the UOC-KP and the UAOC, and two members of the UOC-MP, merged into the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the unification council elected Epiphanius I as its first primate.
Unification council of the Eastern Orthodox churches of Ukraine
Unification council[edit]
Convocation of the council[edit]
On 5 December, President Poroshenko declared the unification council would be held on 15 December.[136][137] BBC News reported that the council would last one day and that, according to sources in Constantinople, said council would effectively be held on 15 December.[138][139] On the same day, Archbishop Clement, head of the UOC-MP, declared that the UOC-MP would not participate in this unification council.[140][141] Also on 5 December, counselor of Poroshencko, Rostislav Pavlenko, declared that the "Ukrainian Autocephalous church will be completely independent and equal amongst other canonically recognized Orthodox churches". He added: "The Ukrainian Church will be introduced into the diptych, that is, the list of independent Churches. She will become one of the fifteen, already fifteenth, universally recognized, independent Churches. And in this there is a fundamental difference". He also said the charter of the united Ukrainian Orthodox church would be approved by the bishops present at the unification council.[142][143] Still on 5 December, Archbishop Herman of Chernivtsi and Khotyn of the UAOC said no candidate for the position of primate of the future united Ukrainian Orthodox church will be submitted by the UAOC.[144][145]
On 6 December, the website ROMFEA published the letter of convocation to the unification council which was sent to the Orthodox hierarchs of Ukraine.[146] This letter contained a convocation to the unification council with the procedure of election of the primate of the future church. The letter said that any bishop can bring with him a priest and either a monk or a member of the laity to the unification council, and that the monks/priest/laypersons brought this way, as well as the bishops, would have the right to vote during the council for the elaboration of the charter of the new church and the election of its primate. The vote will be secret and by ballot. Moreover, the President Poroshenko would be an observer during the council.[146][147][148][149] On the same day, Metropolitan Alexander of Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyi and Vishnevsky (ru) published on his Facebook page a letter, in Greek, sent by the Ecumenical Patriarchate to Metropolitan Onuphriy; Alexander also gave an unofficial Ukrainian translation of said letter in his post. In the letter to Onuphriy, the Ecumenical Patriarchate declared it still allowed him to be bishop "in a form of oikonomia and condescension" but that if he refused to take part in the unification council he would cease to be the Metropolitan of Kyiv.[150][151][152] The letter to Onuphriy was published on 7 December, in Greek, on the Greek website ROMFEA.[40]
Position of the UOC-KP[edit]
On 6 December 2018, the press secretary of the UOC-KP, Archbishop Yevstratiy Zorya, in response to the allegations of a religious expert who claimed that Filaret Denisenko would not run for the post of primate of the unified Ukrainian church, wrote on his Facebook page that on 19 November Filaret had already expressed his official position. In the same post, he linked to the previous official statement made on 19 November.[153][154][155] Still on 6 December, the UOC-KP held a synod.[156] The synod ended the same day and issued a communiqué. Among the decisions taken by the synod, one was to support the 19 November statement of Filaret. The communiqué also mentioned the UOC-KP would elect its candidate for the post of primate of the united Ukrainian church on 13 December 2018, two days before the unification council; the communiqué also mentioned that considering all the circumstances, the UOC-KP "is ready, if necessary, to postpone for some time the request to recognize it in a dignity of patriarchate, retaining that name within its boundaries and for domestic use". The council of the UOC-KP also decided that only the hierarchs (bishops) would have the right to vote during the unification council and that the vote be open and public.[157][158][159][160] The UOC-KP synod's last two demands – that the voters of the unification council be only bishops, and that the vote to elect the new church's primate be open (not secret) – were contrary to those previously specified by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in its letter.[149][161][162][163]
On 7 December, Filaret Denisenko said, "[Moscow] is spreading rumors that the patriarch will resign and will not run. This is not true. I will be patriarch to death, because the enthronement was in 1995. And no one will remove this grace" and that during the unification council the UOC-KP will "reject everything inappropriate if it is demanded from us".[164][165]
In early December, Metropolitan Sophroniy Dmitruk of the UOC-MP, who was viewed as being in favor of autocephaly, said in an interview that if Filaret was elected by the unification council next to no one of the UOC-MP would join the new church.[166]
According to the Russian news agency Vesti, on 8 December 2018 presidential advisor Rostislav Pavlenko met with Filaret and three of Filaret's bishops behind closed doors. It remains unknown what they were talking about behind closed doors.[167][168]
On 10 December, Filaret said the UOC-KP might not participate at the unification council because of the disagreement with the Ecumenical Patriarchate concerning the procedure of vote of said council.[169][170][171] The same day, the press secretary of the UOC-KP, Zorya, issued an official communiqué which states that "[t]he fact that the Kyiv Patriarchate has proposals as for the procedure of the Council or the election of the church's head does not mean that a common vision will not be agreed in the end".[162][163][172]
On 11 December, Makariy Maletych, head of the UAOC, said the UAOC would come to the unification council at the invitation of the Ecumenical Patriarch. He also responded to the UOC-KP's previous decisions by saying: "How can the council be the Council of Bishops, if one priest and one layman with a bishop are invited?"[173][174]
On 12 December, in an interview given to the BBC, Zorya said that if the UOC-KP took part in the unification council, it "[would] really get something bigger and better than now". He added that if the UOC-KP did not take part in the unification council their situation would worsen and their parishes would leave the UOC-KP. He explained: "If we want to achieve success, we must deal with the real situation, rather than the ideal one, which we'd like to have."[175][176]
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