According to decision of the Holy and Sacred Synod, the delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate is going to visit Ukraine.
Although there was nothing on the agenda concerning Ukraine, the Ecumenical Patriarch said that he had received the invitations from both President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) Metropolitan Epiphanius.
During the meeting with Patriarch Bartholomew in Phanar on the 8th of July the Ukrainian President Zelenskyy asked to send the delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to Kyiv. It is reported that President of Ukraine has requested that the Delegation should be headed by the Metropolitan Geron Emmanuel of Chalcedon. Furthermore, Volodymyr Zelenskyy reportedly asked Patriarch Bartholomew to visit Kyiv on 28-29 July to participate in the festivities of the Ukrainian Statehood Day, that he personally established instead of the previously celebrated Day of the Baptism of Rus.
It is worth noting the Ukrainian side had given indications that by those dates it would manage to soften the stance of the Ukrianian Orthodox Church (UOC) led by Metropolitan Onufriy of Kyiv and All Ukraine. As a result, the pressure on the UOC before and after the President Zelenskyy’s visit to Constantinople has drastically increased. Particularly, the Abbot of Kyiv Pechersk Lavra Metropolitan Pavlo was taken into custody, the several buildings of the monastery were seized. Morover, the Cathedral in Bila Tserkva was seized by the archbishop of the OCU Eustratios Zorya and his clergymen, the other less significant churches in different regions of Ukraine were also captured. The persecution continued in July.
At the same time the Ukrainian government held intensive talks with the leadership of the UOC and its hierarchs. The recognition of the OCU by the UOC was considered unrealistic and Metropolitan Onufriy still refuses to commemorate Patriarch Bartholomew. Therefore, a new plan that provides gradual pressure on the UOC has been drawn up. The goal of the plan was to completely break the UOC’s ties with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). It is expected that the UOC will then be deprived of support of the Local Orthodox Churches and will enter the state of isolated “schism”. After that it will be possible to pass the law on the UOC liquidation and the forcible joining of its communities to the OCU. At first the following demands were made on the UOC:
1. To publish an official document on its separation, with all its dioceses and communities, from the ROC.
2. To inform all Local Orthodox Churches of the UOC separation from the ROC.
3. To depose all the UOC bishops and clerics, who are collaborating with Russians (i.e. who reside on the non-Ukrainian controlled territories and continue conducting the services).
4. To officially condemn the teaching formulated by the Patriarch Kirill.
This ultimate demand was prepared by the head of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience Viktor Yelensky and sent as the letter to the UOC on the 31st of May. Viktor Yelensky appealed to it repeatedly during the talks with the UOC hierarchs.
It is stated that during the meeting of Viktor Yelensky with Patriarch Bartholomew on the 12th of July the plan was approved. The only thing that remains is to secure the agreement of the UOC for self-dissolution, which still hasn’t been achieved by the Ukrainian government.
The intensification of the persecution against the UOC will undermine the authority of Mother Church and it is something that both the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Metropolitan Emmanuel understand very well. But it seems that none of them wants to take political responsibility for the destruction of Orthodoxy in Ukraine. For this reason, after the meeting with President Zelenskyy the delegation was formed of Metropolitan Ilarion of Winnipeg, Metropolitan Job of Pisidia, priest Andriy Krochak. They should have flown to Kyiv by 15th of June. But according to confidential information from Ukrainian sources, the Ukrainian authorities refused to receive the delegation without the participation of Metropolitan Emmanuel, so the visit was cancelled.
At the same time the pressure on the UOC has increased even more. The occasion was the destruction of the Holy Transfiguration Cathedral in Odessa (by the Russian missile as stated by the Ukrainian authorities and media). The State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience addressed the leadership of the UOC with a new appeal to comply with the ultimatum, that includes the condemnation of the “anti-Christian teaching formulated by the Patriarch Kirill”.
In Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine the promotion of the bill No. 8371 on the prohibition of religious organizations, affiliated with the ROC, renewed. In fact, who is affiliated and who is not, will be decided by Viktor Yelensky, who is welcomed in Phanar, and the officials under his command, which will make possible to dissolve parishes of the UOC one by one, seize their temples, and simultaneously intimidate the rest of the UOC communities. If the ruling party managed to get the votes, the bill would be adopted at first reading on July 27-29th, just to mark the Ukrainian Statehood Day.
On the same days the Local Council of the OCU will be held, which will definitely support the new step of the authorities to destroy the UOC and transfer its parishes.
On the 25th of June Viktor Yelensky met with the Metropolitan Onufriy. According to information from Ukrainian sources, during the meeting Yelensky demanded the convocation of the UOC Synod for the final rupture of its relations with the ROC. It is reported that Metropolitan Onufriy confirmed to Yelensky his old canonical position, refusing to give in to the ultimatum of Ukrainian authorities. Yelensky, for his part, stated that the bill will be approved and the UOC will not be able to save itself with any means.
The position of Metropolitan of Chalcedon seems to be difficult, since a new wave of persecution against the UOC is dated for his visit. It is obvious that the Ukrainian government reckons that the visit of Metropolitan Geron of Chalcedon, the second most honorable hierarch of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, will “justify” these persecutions and will become a “blessing” for statutory bar on the UOC.
Let us hope that the Metropolitan Emmanuel will rise to the occasion as the Holy Gospel of the Lord dictates.
Zelensky is playing his last card here. He knows the end is near and seeks the Orthodox Church’s help. I thought he had a different religious belief!