print this page

Ukrainian Orthodox in USA Ask Constantinople Patriarch to Intercede in Church Affairs in Ukraine

28.10.2005, [00:45] // Orthodox //

Washington – The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) USA called upon Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople “to defend” Ukraine from “the machinations” of the Moscow Patriarchate. cerkva.org.ua posted the news on 24 October 2005.

“We call upon the high pastor to take strict measures to guarantee sovereign Ukraine the opportunity to enjoy the blessings of a national church, free from external church control and interference, despite possible threats and machinations of the Moscow Patriarchate,” reads the text of the Resolution of the Metropolitan Council of the UOC USA, which is under the jurisdiction of Constantinople.

The text of another resolution adopted by the same council says that “the united church in Ukraine,” the creation of which “our hierarchs” should work on, is to be built “under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.” They also call upon the hierarchs to influence “the Ukrainian government and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko.”

The council also gave a positive assessment to the statement of Archbishop Vsevolod (Majdanski) of the UOC US a after his meeting with Yushchenko in early 2005. He underlined that the patriarch of Constantinople “recognizes the borders of the Moscow Patriarchate the way they were when this patriarchate was recognized by world Orthodoxy in 1593.”

At that time the Kyiv Metropolitanate was part of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, as the authors of the document report.

The UOC USA consists of 100 parishes and missions, as its site reports.

Source:

• http://www.cerkva.org.ua/site/modules.php?name=News&file=view&news_id=965