The monastics of the UOC appealed to Patriarch Bartholomew with an appeal to come to their senses, in Phanar they ordered the UOC to “close its mouth”
At the end of July 2021, two statements were made from among the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which, although they do not refer directly to each other as a “question-answer”, but in their meaning and significance are very significant markers of the Ukrainian-Phanariote “dialogue”.
Ukrainian question and Phanariotic answer
Two weeks after the All-Ukrainian Monastic Congress at the Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra, which took place on July 15, 2021, the text of the Appeal to Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople was published.
In fact, it was not entirely correct: to publish the document on behalf of the congress after such a long time after the congress itself, moreover, with only two signatures: the chairman of the congress and the secretary. If the text was adopted at the congress itself, it must be published on the same day, and if the text was approved by someone else, then it should be published not on behalf of the congress, but on behalf of the person who approved it. Otherwise, the authority of the congress and, as a result, the documents that were adopted at it are belittled. It is safe to say that this circumstance did not go unnoticed by the enemies of the UOC and did not play in its favor. But back to the Appeal itself.
The appeal was addressed personally to Patriarch Bartholomew, and his reaction to it was very eloquent – it was absent altogether (at the moment, at least). Instead, the head of the Phanar sent a Message “On the occasion of the 1033th anniversary of the baptism of Russians (των Ρως)”. A very annoying oversight of the Office of the President of Ukraine: to visit Phanar so many times, to conduct negotiations and not explain to “his all-holiness” that Prince Volodymyr baptized “Kievan Rus-Ukraine”, and at the same time was “the Ukrainian ruler” Zelensky from 28.07.21). And also that to use the word “Russian” in relation to Ukraine is bad manners. According to Ukrainian law, Russians are now not an indigenous people in Ukraine at all.
The head of the Phanar completely ignored the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is quite logical, because he “abolished” it two and a half years ago.
Be that as it may, this Message from the head of the Phanar was addressed to the “Kiev Epiphany (Κιέβου Επιφάνιο)” (without titles) and it is indicated that it is a message of “love and unity to everyone, regardless of whether they know about it or ignore whether they want it or not”. This is a clear hint that there are those in Ukraine who ignore “love and unity” from the Patriarchate of Constantinople, a hint in which it is difficult not to recognize the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. But officially the head of the Phanar of the UOC ignored it completely, which is quite logical, because he “abolished” it two and a half years ago.
However, the eloquent silence of Patriarch Bartholomew was more than compensated for by the Metropolitan Apostle of Derkiy (Dannilidis), who posted an angry publication on the Facebook page of his diocese under the headline “Enough, hierarchs of the Russian presence in Ukraine!” The quintessence of this appeal was put in the title of this article: “Close your mouth”.
Can the passage of the Metropolitan Apostle (Dannilidis) be considered, if not an official, but a real answer to the monasticism of the UOC? On the one hand, there is a precedent when the Metropolitan Apostle (Dannilidis) sent a letter officially on behalf of Patriarch Bartholomew. It was on January 20, 2020, when Phanar threatened Metropolitan Michael of Prague (Dandar) with “strict intervention” for disobeying the decisions of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, in which he was also not particularly shy in expressions. On the other hand, from the known Greek Orthodox resources, the passage of the Metropolitan Apostle (Dannilidis) was published only by the Orthodox Times, known for its inclination to actively discuss all kinds of scandals. Now, for example, a whole campaign has been launched there to discredit the Metropolitan of Chalcedon Emmanuel (Adamakis), who was recently appointed the second most honorable hierarch in the Phanar after Patriarch Bartholomew.
The official website of the Patriarchate of Constantinople ec-patr.org is under construction. And the most read Greek sites Romfei and Bim Orthodox did not pay any attention to the words of the Metropolitan Apostle. Moreover, both of these resources published the very Appeal of the monastic congress of the UOC to Patriarch Bartholomew in full, with the attachment of photocopies of the original. And on Romfey’s website, this news got more than 100,000 (!) Views in less than a day. But Romfei did not publish the Epistle of the head of the Phanar to Kiev Epiphany on the occasion of the 1033th anniversary of the “baptism of the Russians”.
Therefore, the question of how consistent the statement of the Metropolitan Apostle is with the real position of the Phanar can be answered as follows: they are identical in content, but differ in form. If in the performance of the Metropolitan Apostle this is banal rudeness, then on the part of the official Phanar it is eloquent disregard.
Two different ecclesiologies
Now let’s move on to analyzing the content of the Address of the Congress of Monastics of the UOC and the passage of the Metropolitan Apostle. As already mentioned, they contain a completely different understanding of what the Church of Christ is.
The UOC understands it this way:
“The millennial tradition of Orthodoxy was built on the unity of the Local Orthodox Churches, each of which fully possesses all the fullness of grace, and all together form the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Ecumenical Church. This unity of the Local Orthodox Churches can be likened to the Holy Eucharist, where in all the Holy Lamb is all Christ, but in every particle is all Christ”.
Everyone can read the book of the Acts of the Apostles, and even better the whole New Testament, and make sure that this description of the Church is fully consistent with the Holy Scriptures. If you go deeper and investigate the creations of the holy fathers and the decisions of the Ecumenical Councils, the result will be the same.
But Metropolitan Apostle speaks of the UOC as a kind of Protestantism. He exclaims pompously:
“What church are you talking about? What kind of modern Protestantism that you profess? Establish yourself in the position of humility and discipleship, because even if on earth you think that you have conquered the whole world, the indignation of the Ecumenical, Local and other Synod Fathers who established and interpreted the unique duties of Constantinople, as well as Justice from God, they interfere even then. Sinners where are we going”.
Phanar sees the Church as an aggregate of Local Churches headed by the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which has special powers and bears special responsibility in Orthodoxy.
Having studied the statements of other hierarchs of Constantinople, as well as Patriarch Bartholomew himself, at least for the last two years, one can make sure that they are all similar. Therefore, at least in this part, these words can be considered the actual position of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which sees the Church as a set of Local Churches headed by the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which has special powers and bears special responsibility in Orthodoxy.
If the understanding of the Church in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is absolutely the same as it was throughout the two thousand-year history of Christianity, then Phanar proposes a new model of church structure. Its essence is that Orthodoxy is reduced to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which, as the Phanariots declare, expresses “the etat of Orthodoxy”. Constantinople is the mother of all Local Churches, which exist insofar as they are in communion with Constantinople and obey its orders.
This model fundamentally contradicts the Orthodox dogma about the Church, and if we take into account the almost complete dependence of the Patriarchate of Constantinople on the US political establishment, as evidenced by the history of the Phanar over the past half century, then the situation begins to look quite sad.
What we owe to the Greeks
Call our people Ukrainian or Russian, but we have always remembered and remember from whom we received Holy Baptism, the Gospel teaching, monastic tradition, and so on. The Address of the Monastic Congress says about this:
“We, the monastics of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, have always treated the spiritual tradition of the great Greek monasteries with respect and reverence. For us, both Holy Mount Athos and other monasteries in Greece were places of receiving spiritual guidance and nourishment. This phenomenon is traditional for the monastic tradition of our Church. Almost every monastery in Ukraine has icons painted on Mount Athos and shrines associated with Greece. We treated the Greek monks with love and reverence, from whom we received spiritual instructions in simplicity”.
Let’s think about the best way to show gratitude for the fact that from Constantinople (historians have other opinions) we received an invaluable gift, the Orthodox faith? This question was answered by the holy Apostle John the Theologian, who said:
“There is no greater joy for me than to hear that my children are walking in truth” (3 John 4).
Loyalty to Orthodoxy and spiritual tradition – this is the best gratitude that we can express it in relation to those who have enlightened us with the faith of Christ. But the Phanariots for some reason believe that we should be in full and unconditional obedience to the modern Greeks for the fact that their ancestors passed on to us the holy Orthodox faith.
Faithfulness to Orthodoxy is the best gratitude that we can express in relation to those who have enlightened us with Christ’s faith. But the Phanariots for some reason believe that we should be in full and unconditional obedience to the Greeks because their ancestors passed on to us the holy Orthodox faith.
Here is how Metropolitan Apostle says about it:
“With disgust I read in the media the anti-church and anti-Greek statements of the representatives of the Russian presence in Ukraine, and in a state of righteous anger I answer: close your mouth and remove your hands from the Successor of those who made you Christians! You owe everything to what you so scornfully call Istanbul! For us, this is the only City that has stood here for centuries and gives only good to all of you who celebrate the 1033th anniversary of the adoption of Christianity, but at the same time does not mention anywhere who baptized you and gave you what you are now boasting about. We gave you light – you return it to us shrouded in darkness! We gave you grace – you answer with ingratitude! We brought you culture – you insult us!”
At the same time, it would be logical to ask the question: are modern Phanariots faithful to that Orthodoxy and the spiritual tradition that their ancestors passed on to us 1033 years ago? With sorrow we can state that no, they are not. Phanar’s deviation from Orthodox ecclesiology has already been mentioned above. In addition, today the Patriarchate of Constantinople has entered the home stretch of the next, third in a row, union with the Latins, which is a departure not only from the dogma of the Church, but also from many other dogmas.
In general, the question of any claims of contemporaries based on the merits of their ancestors was resolved two thousand years ago by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. When proud Jews declared to Christ that “we are children of Abraham,” He answered them: “If you were children of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham” (John 8:39). In these words, the Lord gave all of us a criterion for all time: we are as much the heirs of our glorious ancestors as we imitate their faith and virtues.
In full accordance with this understanding of the matter, the congress of monasticism of the UOC calls out to Patriarch Bartholomew: “Remember the firm adherence to Orthodoxy of your great predecessors”.
A call to repentance
The text of the Appeal of monastics of the UOC to Patriarch Bartholomew does not contain the words in the title of the article: “Repent, brother,” but the essence of the text is precisely that. First, a short retrospective is given; I recall those times when Patriarch Bartholomew did not allow himself to grossly violate the canons of the Church:
“We remember your visits to Ukraine, as well as your representatives, when you in every way illustrated your support for the legitimate Metropolitan of Kiev, first of Blessed Memory, Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan), and then to his successor, Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine Onufriy”.
And then in bright colors, without any diplomatic curtsy, a picture of everything that Patriarch Bartholomew will do in the future is drawn: to the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. We are at a loss as to what motivated your decisions, but we see with our own eyes what they led to. With confusion in our hearts and sorrow, we, monastics of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, ask you, Patriarch Bartholomew, how your morality accepts the level of embarrassment that your decision brought to our country: the seizure of churches, the beating of ordinary believers, discrimination of our pastors and flock at the state level , calls for the extermination of our clergy?
Do you understand that on the slope of your life you became the reason for the division of the one people of God, in which, according to the word of the Apostle Paul: Christ to all (Col. 3:11)? To please what anti-church forces did you commit an unprecedented crime against the Church? Do you realize that into the bloody confrontation that sows grief among our people, you have introduced new seeds of religious struggle, from which the Lord saved us earlier.
And it all ends with a call to repentance:
“In this situation, we, monastics of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, appeal to you to assess the consequences of your actions and reconsider your decision. Become the first bishop and father recognized by all Orthodox Christians again. Remember the firm commitment to Orthodoxy of your great predecessors. Think what a great responsibility will rest on you if in the history of Orthodoxy your name will forever be associated with trampled unity and will not be on a par with the names of your great predecessors and saints: John Chrysostom, Photius, Tarasius, Gennady, but among the traitors Churches that defiled the throne of Constantinople.
Before the common shrines of all Orthodox Christians, we, the bishops, abbots and abbess of all the holy monasteries of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, offer our prayers to the Merciful Lord to grant you to see what your desire to unite the legitimate Church with those who have departed from it for decades has led earlier and, strengthened in his hard-heartedness, he sows confusion and division among ordinary people”.
Answer from Phanar
Let’s repeat, the passage of Metropolitan Apostole is not a direct and immediate response to the Address of the monastic congress, but in the logic of the Ukrainian-Phanar “dialogue” it has just such a meaning. This answer consists of the following:
shut your mouth;
remove your hands;
you respond with ingratitude;
we have given you grace, and you offend us;
finally stop your anger, hatred and arrogance.
However, the Appeal of the monastics of our Church sets out the reality that exists today in Ukraine, and one of the main reasons for which is Patriarch Bartholomew. All of the above: the seizure of churches, the beating of ordinary believers, discrimination against our pastors and flock at the state level, calls for the extermination of our clergy – all these are documented facts. Nobody invented anything.
As a result, we see, on the one hand, facts, and on the other, just rudeness without any serious arguments. One cannot help but recall an old Greek proverb: “Jupiter, you are angry – it means that you are wrong.”
What’s next?
The tone of the address of monastics of the UOC to Patriarch Bartholomew is rather harsh, the text uses very harsh expressions:
how your morality accepts that level of embarrassment;
do you understand what caused the separation;
You have committed an unprecedented crime;
and so on.
The rigidity of these formulations allows us to conclude that in practical terms, the monastics of the UOC do not hope that Patriarch Bartholomew will change his position and from a man who sows enmity and discord, will again become a “good shepherd”. If there was this hope, then the tone of the Address would be such as to allow Patriarch Bartholomew to save face, at least to the extent that is possible under the circumstances. But all the behavior of the head of the Phanar shows that there can be no such hopes.
History knows almost no cases when a person of such a level, and, moreover, who has gone so far in his destructive activity, would suddenly take and repent, although, of course, by God’s providence, everything is possible.
From a practical point of view, the conversion of monastics is a preparation for radical decisions of the Church on Patriarch Bartholomew and on the errors that he personifies. Perhaps, soon we will see already at the level of the episcopate, and not only of the Local Church, but of everyone who is not carried away by Phanar’s false wisdom, an unambiguous and clear assessment of the actions of Patriarch Bartholomew himself and the new ecclesiology that Phanar is trying to impose on the entire Orthodoxy.
Union of Orthodox Journalists