Hieromonk Nikitos of the Pantokrator Monastery talked about his impressions from the visit to Ukraine, cooperation with the OCU hierarchs, and a meeting with Metropolitan Epifaniy. He says he constantly prays for the faithful and hierarchs of the ROC in Ukraine to reconsider their views and return to the Church and the common Eucharistic Chalice.
This is a translation from Greek, made by the Spiritual Front of Ukraine.
The historic and long-awaited visit of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to Ukraine was the best opportunity to find out what Ukrainian Orthodox Christians stand for. A wonderful reception for the Ecumenical Patriarch was as expected.
What we can testify to, what we “saw and experienced” is the grandeur of the Divine Liturgy in St Sophia of Kyiv; about 80 bishops, more than 1,000 priests, and countless deacons in the Divine Liturgy, attended by countless believers who came to Kyiv from all over Ukraine at their own expense and even in the midst of coronavirus! Undoubtedly, the attendance by the faithful would have been much greater than in other circumstances.
Such a Divine Liturgy could be compared only with those that took place in the temple of Sophia of the Wisdom of God at the peak of the Byzantine Empire. It unequivocally confirmed the rightfulness of the actions by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the complex Ukrainian church issue, which had been plaguing Ukraine for almost 30 years, due to the attitude of the Russian Patriarchate. With tears in their eyes, people thank God and the Ecumenical Patriarch for autocephaly, in awe over participating in the Divine Liturgy, where this Ecumenical Patriarch is minister, feeling the unity of the Church resulting from common worship and a sense of canonicity that many of them had lacked for almost three decades.
We, the unworthy servants of the Ecumenical Patriarch, also experienced great emotion when we saw this whole crowd of believers reciting the Creed and “Our Father.” It is really an image that makes you feel the power of unity of faith and the greatness of Orthodoxy.
The joy on people’s faces is an unshakable argument that the Autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is now an established fact. Anyone who tries to deny the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church is trying to deny reality. And most importantly, at the closing of the Divine Liturgy, the Ecumenical Patriarch invited hierarchs, clergy, and people of Ukraine who refuse to communicate with the Ecumenical Patriarchate, to reconsider their position and discuss their issues, thoughts, and concerns within the sanctified church tradition.
Then once again the Ecumenical Patriarch has called for unity. There is an open invitation, which I hope the archbishops of the Russian Church in Ukraine will unequivocally accept. It’s to accept the canonical order of the Church and, of course, the existence of the Autocephaly of the Church of Ukraine.
One elder very wisely said, “Autocephaly is like baptism; when someone is baptized, it’s forever. And that doesn’t change. They can’t be ‘unbaptized’ after that.” As was the case with the Autocephaly of Ukraine; when it was granted, it was all a done thing. This can’t be changed. As is the case with all other autocephalous churches. In future generations, the date when autocephaly was granted will be mentioned in history books of Ukraine as a historical event.
For the next two days, we served the liturgy at the Church of the Transfiguration in Kyiv together with Metropolitan Oleksandr, where the faithful observed the services with great piety and asked many reasonable questions. People are pious. All priests and believers have a thirst for learning. Most people are interested in how they could live peacefully with people who persecute them and fail to recognize them as Orthodox. We also appealed to those who are suffering from the loss of their loved ones during war. They are concerned about how they could forgive those responsible for their children’s deaths. This is what gives them pain. We tried to make it clear to them that Christ had forgiven them all, even his crucifixes. And that He loves us all without exception, equally, because we are all His children. Thank God, they are very good people, willing to become better!
Then, during our visit to the city of Vinnytsia, a wonderful reception awaited us. Most of the parishioners of the Transfiguration Church were there, along with most of the clergy and, of course, Metropolitan Simeon, who is remarkable, together with Metropolitan Oleksandr, from the very beginning, supporting the New Autocephalous Church, and therefore facing many difficulties on the part of his former priests. But God’s blessing is evident in his metropolis, and we sensed the miracle of God, who resurrected the Ukrainian Church and stopped the schism that had been devouring the faithful. All believers rejoice, happy to be in the canonical position and communicate with the Mother Church, especially with Athos. Their faces shone, and the questions were mostly about how to live a more spiritual life. The future of the new autocephalous church in Ukraine looks bright.
In our meeting with His Beatitude Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kyiv and All Ukraine, we felt the blessing that the new Autocephalous Church received from the Mother Church and its attempts to return to the Byzantine tradition: Greek hoods, Byzantine vestments, mantles with Greek-style embroidery, and a general spirit similar to that of Byzantine. The goal of His Beatitude is for his Church to become bearers of the ancient tradition of the Church and rediscover their roots.
The joy of creating a new autocephalous church is mixed with sadness because some Orthodox Christians in Ukraine (the ROCinU – ed.) have not yet learned the fullness of truth and its canonical order, instead maintaining division and insisting on distancing themselves from the Church. We pray for them all and recall them in every Divine Liturgy so that they can reconsider their entrenched thoughts and return to the Church and to the common Chalice, which is the right way to salvation.
