HOLY AND GREAT COUNCIL DOCUMENT

Draft Synodical Document

Πέμπτη 3 Μαΐου 2018

FR. CYRIL HOVORUN INTERVIEW TO TORONTO-BASED UKETUBE ON THE IMMINENT UKRAINIAN AUTOCEPHALY (video)

Full Interview with Very Rev. Fr. Dr. @Cyril Hovorun (Д-р Кирило Говорун), Acting Director of Huffington Ecumenical Institute, Assist. Prof. at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America, 1 May 2018.


- 0:35 Government and Church in Ukraine worked together to facilitate a rapproachmentbetween the Orthodox Churches in Ukraine
- 1:15 Story of reconciliation with Ukrainian Orthodox is over one hundred years old
- 1:35 Begins with the independence of the Ukrainian State (Українська Держава) in 1918. The Ukrainian state facilitated the process of autocephalization of the Ukrainian church. It failed when the state fell to Communist Russia
- 2:55 When Ukraine became independent again, part of Ukrainian Orthodoxy proclaimed itself autocephalous, part remained in union with Moscow Patriarchate
- 4:15 Rhetoric, hostility between the three Ukrainian Orthodox Churches
- 4:25 Russia uses the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate against Ukraine
- 4:59 Failed attempt to gain independence from Patriarch Bartholemew initiated by Viktor Yushchenko
- 5:57 Difference between attempts in 2008 compared to 2018
- 7:40 President Viktor Yushchenko envisaged a single local Church in Ukraine; Idea of locality, i.e. one state with one church
- 8:25 President Poroshenko hesitated for a long time to act. He was urged, encouraged many times by many players in Ukraine to address the church issue. Poroshenko postponed and missed many opportunities, likely because of political considerations
- 9:55 Initiatives came from parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate. Churches played a protagonist role. They urged Poroshenko to act
- 10:37 Model does not presuppose one local church for Ukraine, but rather multiple jurisdictions, diverse Ukrainian Orthodoxy. Poroshenko clearly states he does not want to united all Orthodox Christians into one church
- 11:45 Not about establishing a single local church for Ukraine. But rather the creation of a canonical alternative to the canonical UOC-MP, i.e. two canonical jurisdictions in Ukraine
- 12:50 Members of the UOC-MP understand the role the Russian church played against Ukraine. Policy of keeping a blind eye on the war in the east discourages people to stay, but they don't have an alternative
- 14:15 This model is more viable, will keep the church self-sufficient not dependent on the state
- 15:00 For some church goers canonicity is an issue, for others it is not
- 16:05 Church of Kyivan Rus' was incorporated into the Patriarchate of Constantinopol and enjoyed canonical status since 988 AD. This remained for centuries
- 16:45 Destruction of Kyiv by Mongol hordes, the church was fragmented, split into two pieces. Church was "cloned". One stayed in Ukraine and incorporated into the Lithuanian-Polish state, the other moved to Muscovy
- 18:50 After the declaration of the Ukrainian People's Republic, part of the church fled with those escaping Communist Soviet Union to the United States and Canada. That part of the Ukrainian church remained mostly outside communion with other churches. Only recently incorporated in the 1990s
- 20:00 Patriarchate of Kyiv seeks recognition from Ecumenical Patriarchate
- 20:25 Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine accused Patriarchate of Kyiv of being non-canonical. Used non-canonical status to blame people, develop hatred, hate speech, narratives of rejection and exclusion on the grounds of canonicity. Eventually, it affects us
- 21:57 The idea of Global Orthodoxy, a global family of churches, is not very important for the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine. They use 'unity' as a argument against Kyiv Patriarchate
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