Father Andriy Dudchenko, a priest with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, noted that the unification of churches would benefit Ukrainian society. Also, he noted that such unification is being hindered by prejudices and stereotypes that exist in the clergy of the UOC-MP and OCU. The cleric touched upon the issue in an interview with the Spiritual Front of Ukraine.
“It would be beneficial. You are absolutely right. I agree. You know, once again, prejudices and stereotypes formed over these decades do interfere. As we were brought up for years, being told that autocephaly is evil – even the very word ‘autocephaly.’ Therefore, one of the reasons why they do not proclaim autocephaly is because this very word scares many people off, because they preached this way both out loud and discreetly in all church literature and periodicals,” the priest said.
He added that autocephaly in the UOC MP was constantly wrapped in negative epithets and even called a schism.
“They said autocephaly is a split, that it’s bad. Further, there was this idea that there is no grace in the schism, implying those unrecognized Ukrainian Churches, and then this is automatically transferred to the OCU from their point of view, despite the fact that the OCU is recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarch and there are already three other Churches in addition to it entered into such direct communication with OCU. Nevertheless, this stereotype prevails, that there is a merciless desert beyond our visible borders. That there is no baptism there, nothing. Communion there is not real communion, and all priests there are sham, and all that stuff… It’s just terrible. And how can priests unite with those whom they consider to be an empty place? There is a ‘merciless desert,’ so how will they go there?” says Father Andriy Dudchenko.
According to the cleric, such ideological constructions about autocephaly are inspired by Moscow propaganda, which contradicts the canonical tradition of the church.
“What they call their own canonicity, flaunting about it, is anti-canonical, this approach, because it contradicts the first rule of Basil the Great regarding the recognition of different degrees of separation from the Church: heretics, schismatics, and parasynagogue – a self-styled assembly. These Ukrainian divisions are not heretics and schismatics from the point of view of Basil the Great. He would be very surprised that baptism and priesthood are not accepted here,” noted Father Andriy.
“To remember the ancient Church, the episcopate and the clergy should have studied better in seminaries, studied the history of the Church in order to see that in ancient times, there were more acute problems within the Church than today, but this did not prevent them from accepting ordinations and all other sacraments from each other, and recognizing during the unification all that had happened there before. Therefore, there are no canonical reasons to deny the validity of the apostolic succession and, accordingly, the sacraments in the line of the Kyiv Patriarchate,” Archpriest Andriy Dudchenko concluded.
Earlier, Father Andriy Dudchenko said a general characteristic of divided Orthodox Churches is schism. He is also sure that in order for the UOC MP to become independent, it needs to curb those who seek to remain with Moscow.
