NICKOLAS DENISSENKO
A handful of commentators are wondering what issues might be discussed and resolved at the Ukrainian Council coming in December. My guess is that the council will elect a primate and establish an episcopate, with an All-Church council to follow later in 2019 to continue the unification process. A few items to keep in mind:
1. Unification can be complicated. When a newlywed couple moves into their first home, they have to negotiate their personal items and the configuration of the home. For Churches that have existed concurrently and are now merged, there is the matter of episcopal assignments, seminaries and their faculty, curricula, and students, and establishing an initial pastoral agenda. It will take time for the leaders of the Church to smooth out this process as assignments are shuffled and everyone adjusts to changes in their roles.
2. Liturgical language. This is a serious issue, because the struggle for autocephaly in the Ukrainian Church originated over disputes on vernacular Ukrainian and Church Slavonic. Will the new Church continue the Ukrainization that is now native to adherents of the KP and UAOC? Liturgical translations are also a serious matter - there are numerous extant translations, and all parties favor their version. (From the very beginning, there were serious criticisms of the 1921 UAOC's hasty liturgical translation). Will there be discrepancies among the Menaia? My own hope is that the new leaders will aim for stability and refrain from pushing too much change initially. Perhaps the Church could adopt both Ukrainian and Church Slavonic as the official liturgical languages while they create a new commission for the translation of all new texts into Ukrainian (please include musicians!). The commission should also consider adopting extant translations of Russian for Russophone parishes.
3. Internal Culture. The 97-year schism will carry scar tissue from one nasty wound: defining autocephaly as separatism. I hope the new Church will prioritize two components of one mission: creating peace within the Church, and reaching out to their Sister Orthodox Churches in the world. It is necessary for the sister Churches to see Christ in the faces of Orthodox Ukrainians to overcome the popular notion that autocephaly is separatism, or the most recent idea that autocephaly is unnecessary. Ukrainians have a chance to demonstrate the gift of autocephaly: Eucharistic unity in an all-Orthodox submission to Christ, without political or ecclesial subordination to the leadership of another Church or nation. Statements are not enough to heal a schism: action will be needed.
4. A Policy on Relations with the State. The fate of the new Church will be sealed if it becomes too cozy with a particular party, figure, or idea. The Church needs to disavow all forms of political Orthodoxy, including Ukrainian nationalism, and follow through with action.
5. Develop and apply an ethic of historical memory. What is the usable past for the Ukrainian Church? The renaissance of the 17th century? The heroes of the 21st century? The medieval saints? To what degree will the Ukrainian Church be beholden to its past? Perhaps an initiative to emphasize liturgical, personal, and catechetical study of the Word of God can be an asset in emphasizing Christ as the Alpha and Omega of salvation history.
6. Ecclesiology. Will the Ukrainian Church draw upon its own heritage of conciliarity and sobornopravnist', and honor the priesthood of the laity in all aspects of Church life? Or will the Church select monoepiscopacy?
Soon enough, the drama of autocephaly and Tomos will be finished, and the Church will confront the rising of the sun that greets each new day. These are some of the issues her leaders will be tasked with addressing.