Ecumenical Patriarch Wants Ukrainian Orthodoxy United

Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I addressed a letter to Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in response to a January 19 letter from a group of people’s deputies, reports Interfax Ukraine. In their letter, the Ukrainian people’s deputies made amazing statements, “cordially inviting” the Patriarch not to visit Ukraine and suspecting him of supporting the new union between the Ukrainian Orthodox community and Rome (apparently, Ukrainian lawmakers are the only ones capable of making such inferences — Author ). Patriarch Bartholomew I’s response leaves one hopeful that Ecumenical Orthodoxy will help the Ukrainian Orthodox churches to enter a union among themselves. Among other things, the Ecumenical Patriarch resolutely refutes the Russian Orthodox Church’s allegations that Constantinople is meddling in Ukraine’s affairs to serve its own selfish ends. In His Holiness’s words, “The proclamation of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church will by no means indicate its withdrawal from the Moscow Patriarchate and subordination to the Ecumenical one. Rather, it will mean raising the status of the Ukrainian Church to the level of an independent church, which status is currently possessed by other Ecumenical Orthodox churches.” Nor does Patriarch Bartholomew I decline the invitation to Ukraine, believing that this visit “will be aimed not at disuniting Christians, as alleged by some with no grounds whatever, but at supporting the idea of unity of all Ukrainian Orthodox faithful, so as to rejoice at the restoration of church integrity together with them.”

The Ecumenical Patriarch’s message to Verkhovna Rada deserves all possible praise as a sign of the Archpriest’s support of the Ukrainian people at this trying period in its history.