FIRST SWALLOW OF SPRING?
Archpriests of three Eastern Orthodox eparchies functioning in Lviv oblast held a meeting on March 8 to discuss the unification of all Orthodox churches in Ukraine into one(!). The assembly was initiated by Archbishop Avhustyn (Markevych) of Lviv and Drohobych (Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarchate or UOC MP). The delegation of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) was led by Bishop Makariy (Maletych) of Lviv, and that of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC KP) was presided over by Metropolitan Andriy (Horak) of Lviv and Sokal. Those present agreed to appoint Archimandrite Pankraty of the Ecumenical Constantinople Patriarchate coordinator of the meeting.
The assembly started with the Rev. Volodymyr (UOC MP) suggesting to second the Ukrainian President’s proposal to unite the Orthodox churches of Ukraine into a single Local Church, voiced by Mr. Kuchma during the festivities of Christmas 2000. To do so, a trilateral commission should be set up. It was further proposed to hold a meet with the President in Truskavets to advise him on the commencement of unification.
Further course of the meeting, however, was not as encouraging as its beginning, Archbishop Avhustyn cautioned that most UOC MP adherents are opposed to the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and that exponents constituted a mere 20%. Metropolitan Andriy (UOC KP), for his part, refused to meet with the President on such short notice, because he was in a hurry to attend a synod in Kyiv. Bishop Makariy (UAOC) suggested that the creation of a “unifying commission at the local, Lviv level will damage the interfaith dialogue, lending it a local character. A practical dialogue requires blessings of the Church leadership — in the case of UAOC, Metropolitan Kostiantyn (US), as well as Metropolitan Mefodiy (Kudriakov), Patriarchal Locum Tenens, and Archbishop Ihor (Isichenko), Procurator of the Patriarchate. UAOC will act in the interfaith dialogue as a single force, rather than scattered eparchies.” In a word, the meeting was all talk and no specific actions. According to the UAOC Patriarchate, it ended with those present passing a resolution whereby the three hierarchs of the Orthodox churches in Ukraine would be approached with a proposal to set up a commission to conduct a dialogue with the other Orthodox churches.
A brief comment: from our point of view, the meeting in Lviv was an extraordinary and extremely important event, even though it could not have produced any immediate tangible results. Obviously, Archbishop Avhustyn’s initiative would have never been voiced without blessings from the UOC MP leadership (without stressing the reasons). Also, the 20% Ukrainian Orthodox adherents supporting autocephaly, mentioned by the Archbishop, is a highly questionable percentage. First, there are no reliable statistics. Second, most UOC MP and UAOC adherents are not inclined to reject autocephaly which they de facto already have. There is a strong likelihood that the esteemed Archbishop had in mind the episcopate of his Church, rather than the bulk of Ukrainian believers. The said episcopate, along with the UOC brotherhoods, has done everything possible to antagonize their congregations against autocephaly. And so, if a miracle were worked one day and the UOC MP hierarchy decided to adopt the idea of independence, they would have to work hard to convince all those militant little old ladies to change their attitude.
Still, the very fact of the meeting and the topics discussed is certainly a very good news, something we have not heard for several years. After all, starting to talk is always better than continuing to fight.
