On the occasion of his homily, the patriarch of Moscow Kirill accused “minds of evil” who would have “gathered” to “make a abyss separate” the Orthodox from Russia and Ukraine.
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The latest episode in Orthodoxy would be the culmination of “unprecedented pressures”, but not a break. The representatives of the Moscow patriarchy endeavored, Sunday, May 29, to circumscribe the scope of the declaration of independence announced on Friday by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is attached to the Ecclesial Moscow Center. At the end of a council (a meeting of its bishops), the Ukrainian Church claimed its “full independence” and its “autonomy” as consequences of its disagreement with the support brought by Kirill, the patriarch of Moscow, in The invasion of his country by Russia. This declaration was perceived in the Orthodox world as a blow for the Russian Church, aligned with the theory of the indissoluble union of the Russian and Ukrainian peoples and which draws from Ukraine part of its living forces – faithful and priests.
Sunday, on the occasion of his homily, the patriarch Kirill himself reacted by accusing “minds of evil” who would have “gathered” to “make a abyss separate” the Orthodox of Russia and Ukraine. “We understand the suffering of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, he insisted. We understand that his bliss The Metropolitan ONUPHRE [the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church] and the episcopate must act with as much wisdom as possible for Do not complicate the life of their followers. (…) We pray that temporary external obstacles do not destroy the spiritual unity of our people. “
The position of Moscow patriarchy was explained by the president of his department of external relations, the Metropolitis Hilarion. In a text published online, he presents the deliberation of the Council of the Ukrainian Church as the result of “unprecedented pressures” on the clergy and on the faithful “on the part of extremist groups”, “local authorities” and ” Schismatic structures “. This last expression refers to the Church of Ukraine-Patriarcat of kyiv, which broke its links with Moscow in the early 1990s and received official recognition of its independence (self-céphale) by the Patriarchate of Constantinople in 2019 “The schismatics are trying to seize the” Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Patriarcat Church, accused Metropolitan Hilarion.
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Another representative of Moscow patriarchy, Alexandre Shchipkov, of the Department of Relations with Society and the Media, was clearly more critical, accusing the Ukrainian religious leaders to train their Church “in schism”, A process according to him “initiated by the US State Department”.
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