Why can’t the UOC unite with the UOC-KP and UAOC into one Church?

Now the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is under incredible pressure. And one of the most important complaints against it from the authorities and the media (besides the traditional one, in the absence of patriotism) is that there is no love in the Church, since it does not want to unite with its brothers from the Kiev Patriarchate and the UAOC. You, they say, hide behind some incomprehensible crafty canons, but you yourself simply do not want to leave Moscow. And if you were real loving Christians, you would not break down, but go to the unification Council and organize a common Local Church.

And it would seem that all this sounds logical and correct. Does Ukraine need a united Church? - Needed. Is splitting bad? - Badly. Do Orthodox Christians need to unite? - Yes one hundred percent! So what's the problem? They convince us: look, even the Patriarch of Constantinople got involved and with one stroke of the pen made non-schismatics out of schismatics. What else do you need?

But the Orthodox need one thing - the salvation of their souls. Or rather, the Church, where this salvation could be obtained. And this is where the questions begin. In all these disputes, one very important topic often remains unresolved. Sometimes we completely forget that the religious organizations of the UOC-KP and UAOC are unacceptable for Orthodox Christians not only because of their non-canonical nature. There is a very serious problem in the spiritual and moral state of the adherents of the schism.

Let’s make a reservation right away: all people are sinners, and in this sense there is no difference between the believers of the “Moscow Patriarchate” and the “Kyiv Patriarchate”. As they used to say in Rus': “Every man is a lie, and so am I.” Yes, we are all sinners. But here we will talk about something else: about the very model of church life of schismatics. About what has entered into their church life and is considered its norm. And what should become the norm for believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the event of “universal unification”.

We can say that over all the years of its existence, the Ukrainian schism has become a kind of magnet for all the ills of Ukrainian society. Pride and deceit, nationalism and Russophobia, the replacement of genuine spiritual life with “Ukrainian customs” - such is the soul of this schism. And the head of the UOC-KP Filaret (Mikhail Denisenko) is its main symbol, a kind of personification of all of the above.

We can give the following example. In the world of music there is the concept of sound and intonation. There is the concept of “Bach sound”, “Beethoven intonation”, “Baroque sound”. The famous pianist Svyatoslav Richter never played Mozart and Chopin in the same way. And not only him. An experienced musician will never play the philosopher Bach with a light Mozartian sound, or the romantic Tchaikovsky with a Bachian intonation.

The same can be said about the spiritual intonation of the Ukrainian schism. This intonation has manifested itself many times in statements by schismatic leaders (just look at Mikhail Denisenko’s sermons that the people of Donbass themselves are to blame for their suffering), in the seizure of churches of the canonical Church, in Russophobic rhetoric, in cooperation with radical organizations. And the quality of this intonation can be defined as proud, crafty, unspiritual, aggressive, evil. And the entire, so to speak, symphony of the Ukrainian split has been sounding in similar intonations for many years.

And this is not at all an attempt to condemn thousands of people in one fell swoop, calling them proud, crafty, etc. This is just an observation from the outside - what kind of person does a split make, and what kind of people rush there .

Andrei Kuraev, answering (back in the 90s) the question of why the canonical Church in Ukraine cannot unite with the schismatics, spoke about such an ancient execution: the criminal was tied to a corpse, and the dead one gradually killed the living one with his poison. So, to combine holy Orthodoxy with the diseases of the Ukrainian schism means to tie a living body to a dead one.

That is why we cannot unite with schismatics. Not because they are not our brothers - as we are often reproached. No, they are brothers for us, but brothers who are lost and sick. And if we accept their illnesses as the norm and enter into spiritual communication with them, we will get sick ourselves.

In order not to be unfounded, let's remember a few examples that the state in which the “shepherds” of the Kyiv Patriarchate find themselves is unacceptable for the true Church, this is a state of deep spiritual illness.

Canonization of UPA soldiers

“Metropolitan” of the UOC-KP Mikhail Zinkevich at a sermon after the consecration of the temple in honor of the UPA soldiers in the Vovchak tract.
In 2021, the Kiev Patriarchate “consecrated” the temple in honor of the UPA soldiers. This was stated by the “Metropolitan” of the UOC-KP Mikhail Zinkevich. In his sermon after the consecration of the church in the Vovchak tract of the Turiy deanery, Zinkevich said: “We consider them people of holy life. Today we showed love for the UPA soldiers, where we founded a temple, naming them in their honor, naming them and canonizing them as saints – all the saints of the Ukrainian land.”

You can glorify people who fought for the freedom of their land as much as you like, but it is absolutely impossible to canonize them among the saints of the Orthodox Church. Saints are people who have achieved spiritual perfection, those who stand before the Throne of God and convey our prayers to Him. According to historians, UPA soldiers are guilty of the death of tens of thousands of Polish civilians in the tragedy of the Volyn massacre. And this is not the machinations of Moscow or the “Russian World”, but the position of a completely European Poland, which in 2021 recognized the Volyn massacre as genocide of the Polish people.

If you agree that the Phanar legalized all the hierarchs of the UOC-KP, then you need to be consistent and agree with all the actions that these hierarchs performed. And in particular – on the canonization of new saints. The Polish and Serbian Local Churches have already refused to recognize the legalization of Ukrainian schismatics. If the UOC unites with the Kyiv Patriarchate into one Church, then it will have no other choice. One part of the Church cannot honor certain saints and the other cannot.

Idolatry – worship of symbols of the nation and state

Painting of the Holy Transfiguration Cathedral of the UOC-KP in Kremenets
Love for one’s land and one’s state is a commendable, but far from the main quality for a Christian.

Christ told us: “Worship the Lord your God and serve Him alone.” We know that the Church is the Body of Christ and it was founded by the Savior himself. When the Church becomes a platform for worship of the nation and state, then a substitution inevitably occurs - the place of God is taken by completely earthly symbols. Essentially, these are modern idols.

The coat of arms above the icons in the iconostasis of one of the schismatic churches

Therefore, the schismatic church, although it retains Christian attributes, is in its essence a religion of idolatry. And if the UOC unites with this pseudo-church structure, it will inevitably unite with this severe spiritual illness.

Hatred of "enemies"

“Religious procession” of the Kiev Patriarchate in 2021
The spiritual illness of schismatics is especially clearly visible at the UOC-KP on July 28, which takes place annually on the day of the Baptism of Russia.

There are practically no icons at this procession, but a huge number of state flags and symbols of nationalist political parties. And that's not even the main thing. At this event, the “crusaders” do not pray or sing spiritual chants. Their prayer is shouting: “Glory to the nation – death to the enemies!” And these are not isolated cases. At every “procession of the cross” of the Kyiv Patriarchate, such chants throughout the entire procession are an invariable attribute of the “prayer work” of this church. These cries are clearly audible to “Patriarch” Filaret and other “hierarchs” of the Kyiv Patriarchate, but not once have they made any comments to their flock.

Of course, by our sinful nature it is common for a person not to love his opponents, and it happens that we may consider some people our enemies. But a Christian must fight sins, and not encourage them in himself. Christ does not call us to kill our enemies; we cannot even wish for their death in our thoughts. Moreover, the Savior moves us to do the exact opposite: “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).

If there is a single Local Church of the UOC and schismatics, then common processions of the cross will be inevitable. Do the hierarchs and ordinary believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church want the cries of “glory to the nation - death to the enemies” to be heard at such a united procession along with the prayer “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us sinners”? But this cannot be avoided. It cannot be avoided until such “death wishers” realize that their “Orthodoxy” has nothing to do with true Orthodoxy, that in order to enter the Church they need to change internally (repentance literally means “change of mind”).

Alas, schismatics do not want to change themselves. They want to open the doors of the Church “from the ground up”, to enter there in the same state in which they have always been, and are now - in a state of pride, complacency and hatred. And if we accept them, we will be obliged to accept all this with them, to accept and legalize their sin as the norm.

But this cannot be done if we do not want to destroy the Church from within. We cannot tie a corpse to ourselves and hope that we can revive it with our lives. We can't!

The Church is obliged to call white white and black black. The Church is “the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15) on earth. Let her be condemned and hated for this, but as long as the Church remains what it should be, “the gates of hell will not prevail against her” (Matthew 16:18). This is what the Savior promised, and we live by this hope. And our Church does not recognize the schism until our lost brothers make the most important choice in their lives - the healing choice of repentance.

Symbol of faith

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP) and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) have finally failed negotiations on unification. Representatives of the UAOC demanded that the head of the UOC-KP Filaret, whose activities they called “a ridicule and a disgrace for all of Ukraine,” voluntarily resign from his post, which became the reason for ending the negotiation process. In response to this, the UOC-KP stated that “there is no such church as the UAOC.” Yesterday, on the official website of the UOC-KP, an appeal from the Holy Synod of the church to the bishops, priests and believers of the UAOC was published. The authors of the appeal to the hierarchs of the UOC-KP announced the termination of negotiations with the autocephalous church, accusing the head of the UAOC, Metropolitan Methodius, of disrupting the dialogue. “The Holy Synod regretfully has to inform you that the Primate of the UAOC, Metropolitan Methodius, and the head of the dialogue commission, Metropolitan Andrey, by their actions, disrupted the process of uniting the UOC-KP and the UAOC into a single local Orthodox Church,” the synod’s statement says. The negotiation process between the UOC-KP and the UAOC began on September 14, after a meeting of the heads of churches - Patriarch Filaret (Denisenko) and Metropolitan Methodius (Kudryakov). They agreed to create a commission that would negotiate the creation of a unified church. Following the meeting, an appeal to believers was adopted, in a peaceful spirit: “Our meeting was fruitful and mutually useful. We have reached an agreement to take steps to resume the dialogue between the UOC-KP and the UAOC to restore the unity of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine (the negotiation process has been going on intermittently since 1995 - ed.).” However, the negotiations were accompanied by conflicts almost from the very beginning. Thus, after the Council of Bishops of the UAOC, a number of its priests declared “a loss of confidence” in the UOC-KP. Yesterday, the work of the negotiation commission was stopped at the initiative of the UOC-KP. The address of the Holy Synod said that such a decision was made because of the position of Metropolitan Methodius, who called the resignation of Patriarch Philaret the primary condition for unification. Yesterday, the Kiev Patriarchate commented on the position of the UAOC without holding back emotions. Thus, the secretary of the Holy Synod of the UOC-KP, Bishop Evstratiy (Zorya), stated that “the UAOC as a church does not exist.” “Most of the bishops of the autocephalous church have 10-12 parishes exclusively in Galicia, and these people are trying to impose their will on us. Unfortunately, the UAOC became a relay of Moscow’s ideas about the departure of Patriarch Filaret. Now its leadership includes people who have nothing to do with the idea of autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church,” the bishop believes. According to him, negotiations with Metropolitan Methodius have been stopped completely, but the UOC-KP is counting on the transfer of individual diocesan bishops, priests and parishioners to them. “There are many sensible people in the UAOC - we will communicate directly with them,” Bishop Evstratiy promised. The UAOC responded no less harshly to the statements of the Kyiv Patriarchate. “Yes, we asked Filaret to leave, because his patriarchal kukol (patriarch’s headdress - ed.) is a disgrace and a laughing stock for all of Ukraine. There must be one patriarch, and only after the unification of all churches,” said the first hierarch of the UAOC, Metropolitan Methodius. “During the meeting with Filaret, I said that the Church of the Moscow Patriarchate should take part in the negotiations and that we should receive the blessing of the Ecumenical Patriarch, but Filaret refused this,” said Metropolitan Methodius. In his opinion, the hierarchs of the UOC-KP did not plan to unite, but “wanted to absorb the UAOC.” Metropolitan Methodius’ immediate plans include a meeting with the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), Metropolitan Vladimir (Sabodan). “We’ll try to talk to him and discuss the current situation. In any case, we need to get out of isolation, and the only obstacle to this is Philaret,” believes Metropolitan Methodius. The UOC MP commented on the termination of negotiations between the UOC KP and the UAOC yesterday with restraint. According to the chairman of the department for external church relations, permanent member of the Holy Synod, Bishop Alexander (Drabinko), the position of the UOC-MP remains unchanged: “The brothers who went into schism remain brothers, but to start talking about a unified church they must come to us. It was clear from the very beginning that these negotiations would lead nowhere as the leaders’ ambitions would prevail.” At the same time, Bishop Alexander emphasized that the UOC-MP in no way interfered in the negotiations. The executive director of the Institute of Religious Freedom, Maxim Vasin, notes that all attempts to establish a dialogue between the UOC-KP and the UAOC ended with the demand for the resignation of Patriarch Filaret. “This time one could hardly expect a different reaction from the Kyiv Patriarchate. For many years, the personality of Patriarch Filaret has been constructive for supporters of the UOC-KP, so for this church such an ultimatum can be regarded as a signal, perhaps a formal one, of the desire to stop the dialogue,” Vasin said.

At the moment, the “Kievans” declare that the dialogue with Methodius is irrevocably over. However, the UOC-KP hopes that some of the UAOC priests and flock will come to them.

The autocephalians, in turn, announced “their answer to Chamberlain.” “We agree that we asked Filaret to leave, since his kukol (headdress - editor's note) is a disgrace for the whole of Ukraine. In addition, the patriarch, after the end of the process of unification of churches, had to remain alone, explained Metropolitan Methodius. – When meeting with Filaret, I stated that representatives of the Moscow Patriarchate should also participate in the negotiation process. I also noticed that we must receive the blessing of the Ecumenical Patriarch. However, the head of the UOC-KP refused this.”

Now Methodius intends to meet with the head of the UOC-MP (Moscow Patriarchate), Metropolitan Vladimir. It is clear that it is time to end the isolation, they believe in the UAOC, and they add that the only obstacle to this is Patriarch Filaret.

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