The Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarchate will not partake in full communion with the officially recognized Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Archbishop Clement, the head of the information and educational department of the Moscow-backed church, said in a comment to Russian TASS news agency on Jan. 6.
“We will not have communion with the ‘new’ church. If we would perform mass with them, we would become the same schismatics as they are, and then we will also not be recognized (by the Russian Orthodox Church),” said Clement.
According to Clement, the Moscow-backed Ukrainian Orthodox Church doesn’t see any possibility to reconciliate with the newly established independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine after the later received its tomos, or a decree of autocephaly, from the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I. The Moscow-backed church remains separate from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
“There was a very active dialogue between religious organizations until recently, the platform for which was the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches, which included the Kyiv Patriarchate and the Autocephalous Church. Because they eliminated (these negotiations), I am not ready to say what format of dialogue is possible,” he said.
The recently established Orthodox Church of Ukraine gained official independence on Jan. 6, receiving the signed decree of autocephaly from the Ecumenical Patriarch in Saint George’s Cathedral in Istanbul. The Ukrainian church became the 15th officially recognized Eastern Orthodox church by the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
Back in October, during a meeting of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church in Minsk, the Russian Orthodox Church accused the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople of the invasion of its canonical territory and decided to cut religious ties between the two patriarchates.
According to Andriy Parubiy, speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, around 40 local parishes belonging to the Moscow-backed church decided to transfer to the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Altogether, there are around 12,000 parishes in Ukraine under the Moscow Patriarchate.
“More than 40 parishes that have already switched (jurisdictions) have demonstrated the high culture of our citizens and the high culture of believers, and the state’s ability to control this process,” Parubiy told Pryamiy TV channel on Jan. 6.
The speaker announced that Ukraine’s parliament will introduce a law this week systemizing the transition of local parishes from the Russian-backed church into the newly established Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
“This step, similar to the receiving of the tomos, will allow the transition to the Ukrainian church to grow into a big wave, when all Ukrainians from different parts of Ukraine will come to the Ukrainian church and become believers of the Ukrainian church,” Parubiy said in Constantinople, according to UNIAN news agency.
