Oh boy, here we go again with another hot topic issue! Why? Page views, duh!
We Orthodox have quite the mess in Ukraine right now, and I'm going to do my best to not get political or anything else. I'm going to try to come at this from purely an ecclesiastical point of view.
So what is the current issue? The Ecumenical Patriarch(EP) Bartholomew has decided that he would give Ukraine it's own autocephalous church that was not under the control of the Moscow Patriarchate(MP). If you are not aware, many in Ukraine do not much care for Russia or Russian things. So, after a time of contention between those wanting an autocephalous Ukrainian church and those wanting to remain under the MP the EP decided to give Ukraine an autocephalous church.
Great for Ukraine, right? Not entirely.
There are a few problems with how this whole thing was done, and it requires a bit of history to understand everything that has been happening.
The first problem, as I mentioned earlier is that many Ukrainians don't like Russia, but their church has historically been controlled (for lack of a better term) by Russia. After Russia fell to communism and whatnot many Ukrainians wanted autocephaly - Moscow said no. Moscow also gave their parishes in the US autocephaly, creating the Orthodox Church in America - which is not seen as autocephalous by the EP. Many Ukrainians that immigrated to America did not want to go to any Russian parishes, so the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (GOArch) basically made Ukrainian parishes for Ukrainians to go to; this was not an autocephalous church, but fell under GOArch.
The second problem is that back in Ukraine there were those who desperately wanted their own church that they basically just made their own out of whole cloth. This is not how things are done, most especially because the Orthodox Church prides itself on being able to trace their bishops back to the Apostles in an unbroken line. A newly made church can not do this. Since this church was basically schismatic no other canonical Orthodox church would concelebrate nor communion with these Ukrainian "Orthodox" - including the EP.
The third problem is that the Ecumenical Patriarch has broken with how the Church has historically accepted schismatics back into the fold - which is done after the schismatics repent. As far as I am aware, none of the schismatics have repented.
A fourth problem, the Ecumenical Patriarch has no jurisdiction in Ukraine because the Ukrainian area fell under the omphorion of the Moscow Patriarch. The EP is to only intercede in issues when it's between two canonical jurisdictions - such as what has happened between Antioch and Jerusalem. The EP is massively overstepping his bounds here.
This causes a whole mess of problems that I can not (and am not equipped to) cover on this blog. But mainly it boils down to either the EP has the authority to create autocephalous jurisdictions in the jurisdictions of other canonical churches, or he doesn't. If he does, then why have we never seen or heard of this authority before now? If the EP can make an autocephalous jurisdiction out of thin air, then what is to stop any other autocephalous church from doing the same? And, if what the EP has done is valid then why wouldn't the OCA be valid as well?
And, before any nay sayers say "Nay, the EP is the leader of the Orthodox Church and can do as he pleases!" I say, "Nay, the EP is first among EQUALS and cannot overstep his jurisdictional bounds - he is not an Orthodox Pope, rather he is only the leader of those under his jurisdiction."
I've said this before in my blog, but Orthodoxy does not have one central head - aside from the Holy Spirit - each jurisdiction has their own head and the heads of each jurisdiction is to work with the others to ensure the proper faith is being followed. The Ecumenical Patriarch is called in to help with disputes between two jurisdictions - much as two friends might call on another friend to help with a dispute.
Now, it is interesting to see the fallout of all that has happened. I've seen many Greeks and Ukrainians praising the EP for what he has done, but really I've not seen anyone else doing so. When the Ecumenical Patriarch celebrates with the so called Ukrainian Patriarch there is a distinct lack of any other jurisdiction present. No other jurisdiction has recognized the Ukrainian church as valid which means that the Ukrainian church moved from schismatics by themselves to schismatics with the Greeks as friends.
Oh, whats that? I called the Greeks schismatics as well? Yes, I did because the EP has broken with tradition and broken himself away from the rest of the Church with his actions (to the point that other hierarchs have stopped commemorating him during Liturgy) - that is the definition of a schismatic. Russia has basically broken communion with Greece at this point.
So what is the solution? I don't know. Honestly, how can the EP now take back autocephaly since the Ukrainians can govern themselves? Would talks between the schismatic Ukrainians and the canonical Russians have ever reached a point for an actual canonical autocephalous Ukrainian Church? Again, no idea. How do we Orthodox move on from this? How do we fix this? Is there a fix for this, or are we looking in the face the Great Schism 2: Electric Baba Yaga? What can we do?
We do what we always do in these situations, we pray. We pray that this is resolved, we pray that God's will be done, we pray for our enemies and those that persecute us. We pray unceasingly that we Orthodox may be united.
We Orthodox have quite the mess in Ukraine right now, and I'm going to do my best to not get political or anything else. I'm going to try to come at this from purely an ecclesiastical point of view.
So what is the current issue? The Ecumenical Patriarch(EP) Bartholomew has decided that he would give Ukraine it's own autocephalous church that was not under the control of the Moscow Patriarchate(MP). If you are not aware, many in Ukraine do not much care for Russia or Russian things. So, after a time of contention between those wanting an autocephalous Ukrainian church and those wanting to remain under the MP the EP decided to give Ukraine an autocephalous church.
Great for Ukraine, right? Not entirely.
There are a few problems with how this whole thing was done, and it requires a bit of history to understand everything that has been happening.
The first problem, as I mentioned earlier is that many Ukrainians don't like Russia, but their church has historically been controlled (for lack of a better term) by Russia. After Russia fell to communism and whatnot many Ukrainians wanted autocephaly - Moscow said no. Moscow also gave their parishes in the US autocephaly, creating the Orthodox Church in America - which is not seen as autocephalous by the EP. Many Ukrainians that immigrated to America did not want to go to any Russian parishes, so the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (GOArch) basically made Ukrainian parishes for Ukrainians to go to; this was not an autocephalous church, but fell under GOArch.
The second problem is that back in Ukraine there were those who desperately wanted their own church that they basically just made their own out of whole cloth. This is not how things are done, most especially because the Orthodox Church prides itself on being able to trace their bishops back to the Apostles in an unbroken line. A newly made church can not do this. Since this church was basically schismatic no other canonical Orthodox church would concelebrate nor communion with these Ukrainian "Orthodox" - including the EP.
The third problem is that the Ecumenical Patriarch has broken with how the Church has historically accepted schismatics back into the fold - which is done after the schismatics repent. As far as I am aware, none of the schismatics have repented.
A fourth problem, the Ecumenical Patriarch has no jurisdiction in Ukraine because the Ukrainian area fell under the omphorion of the Moscow Patriarch. The EP is to only intercede in issues when it's between two canonical jurisdictions - such as what has happened between Antioch and Jerusalem. The EP is massively overstepping his bounds here.
This causes a whole mess of problems that I can not (and am not equipped to) cover on this blog. But mainly it boils down to either the EP has the authority to create autocephalous jurisdictions in the jurisdictions of other canonical churches, or he doesn't. If he does, then why have we never seen or heard of this authority before now? If the EP can make an autocephalous jurisdiction out of thin air, then what is to stop any other autocephalous church from doing the same? And, if what the EP has done is valid then why wouldn't the OCA be valid as well?
And, before any nay sayers say "Nay, the EP is the leader of the Orthodox Church and can do as he pleases!" I say, "Nay, the EP is first among EQUALS and cannot overstep his jurisdictional bounds - he is not an Orthodox Pope, rather he is only the leader of those under his jurisdiction."
I've said this before in my blog, but Orthodoxy does not have one central head - aside from the Holy Spirit - each jurisdiction has their own head and the heads of each jurisdiction is to work with the others to ensure the proper faith is being followed. The Ecumenical Patriarch is called in to help with disputes between two jurisdictions - much as two friends might call on another friend to help with a dispute.
Now, it is interesting to see the fallout of all that has happened. I've seen many Greeks and Ukrainians praising the EP for what he has done, but really I've not seen anyone else doing so. When the Ecumenical Patriarch celebrates with the so called Ukrainian Patriarch there is a distinct lack of any other jurisdiction present. No other jurisdiction has recognized the Ukrainian church as valid which means that the Ukrainian church moved from schismatics by themselves to schismatics with the Greeks as friends.
Oh, whats that? I called the Greeks schismatics as well? Yes, I did because the EP has broken with tradition and broken himself away from the rest of the Church with his actions (to the point that other hierarchs have stopped commemorating him during Liturgy) - that is the definition of a schismatic. Russia has basically broken communion with Greece at this point.
So what is the solution? I don't know. Honestly, how can the EP now take back autocephaly since the Ukrainians can govern themselves? Would talks between the schismatic Ukrainians and the canonical Russians have ever reached a point for an actual canonical autocephalous Ukrainian Church? Again, no idea. How do we Orthodox move on from this? How do we fix this? Is there a fix for this, or are we looking in the face the Great Schism 2: Electric Baba Yaga? What can we do?
We do what we always do in these situations, we pray. We pray that this is resolved, we pray that God's will be done, we pray for our enemies and those that persecute us. We pray unceasingly that we Orthodox may be united.
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