For the first time, the head of the Russian Church, Moscow Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev, spoke about it personally. In his sermon on the occasion of the Assumption of Virgin Mary, he called these visits sinful and “inexplicable.” In his speech, Kirill reiterated the “split in the universal Orthodoxy” caused by the “forces of evil.” According to him, the visit of Patriarch Bartholomew was a confirmation of this claim.
Such rhetoric of the Head of the ROC, in fact, is evidence of despair, both of Gundyaev himself and the entire Moscow Patriarchate. Unable to thwart the landmark event, Russian clergy are now trying to denigrate and demonize it.
However, there is no sin in the arrival of the Head of the Ecumenical Throne in Kyiv. No matter how hard one tries, it is impossible to find any confirmation of this claim. It should be recalled that Patriarch Bartholomew arrived in Ukraine at the invitation of President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, His Beatitude Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kyiv and All Ukraine.
Such an invitation from the Head of the Local Church is in accordance with Orthodox canons and the tradition in line with which any Primate of the Autocephalous Church may visit another Local Church.
According to the same canons, Kirill now has no right to come to Ukraine without a corresponding invitation from His Beatitude Metropolitan Epifaniy. Even his branch in Ukraine Kirill can visit only with such permission. Therefore, in any way, a visit without permission would be non-canonical and “inexplicable.”
However, the current position of our country shows that such a voyage is impossible as such. Gundyaev is very well aware of this, and that is why he makes such absurd statements, only exposing himself to ridicule. Probably, in this way he is trying to justify himself before the Kremlin, which cannot forgive the ROC leadership the loss of the Ukrainian Church.
It is clear that Moscow seeks revenge, but each time it becomes an unattainable goal.
His All-Holiness’s recent visit to Ukraine threw such Moscow aspirations hundreds of steps back. After all, he only asserted his autocephalous status and testified to the whole world that the Local Church in Ukraine had been established. Therefore, now it will be very difficult for Moscow to play things back.
While previously Russian clergymen could either hope for a change in the Ukrainian government, or claim non-recognition of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, or spit baseless accusations against both the OCU and Constantinople, now all these efforts have become ineffective. The public is no longer willing to listen to this Russian nonsense and remain in the fairway of the “Russian world.”
The ROC has been losing positions in Ukraine. It becomes obvious to many that there will be no turning back. The only thing left for Kirill and his wards now is to shrug, despaired and upset, and invent all new tales about the “forces of evil.”
It is worth leaving behind their own ambitions and accepting reality. There are no more schismatics in Ukraine – there is an Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which arose due to the unification of the three branches of Ukrainian Orthodoxy. The process progressed in strict observance of Orthodox canons, and culminated in the receipt of a tomos of autocephaly from the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Mother Church for Ukraine.
However, the Moscow Patriarchate, which deliberately rejected these developments, still lives in its fictional world, where all around are heretics and schismatics, and only adherents of the “Russian world” are canonical and holy. However, this position is wrong and will lead to nothing good.
Who is to blame for this? Unsurprisingly, it’s precisely Moscow that’s responsible. After all, the Moscow Patriarchate had every opportunity to resolve this problem. Instead, they only delayed consideration of the issue, which was detrimental to the Church. This is exactly the sin and a clear manifestation of “forces of evil in action”, not the peaceful visit of Patriarch Bartholomew, who healed the painful division and gave Ukraine what it had a full legal right to.
Thus, such statements by the ROC leader are totally absurd. In general, it’s weird to hear accusations of sin from someone who has been blessing Vladimir Putin and through whose fault the best sons and daughters of Ukraine have been dying – something that truly is a terrible sin. It would be better for Kirill to tell the Kremlin chief about this rather than inventing such nonsense.
Source: religious expert Oleksandr Yefremenko
