The last few weeks have been filled with discussions about the future of Ukrainian Orthodoxy: Bill 8371 and the alleged creation in Ukraine of the “exarchate of the Ecumenical Patriarchate”, which is expected to include the UOC.
Commentators discussed the existing but non-operating Synodal Commission of the Ecumenical Patriarchate on the issue of unity of Ukrainian Orthodoxy, the issue especially sensitive against the background of the possible adoption of Bill 8371, whose latest publicly available draft may have irreversible consequences for the Ukrainian religious community.
The process of distorting the fact of the existence of the “unity commission”, which some interested actors had long been concealing, gradually transformed into an outright fake story of the “exarchate”, “parallel structure”, or “new church”, which can be easily tracked and analyzed as it was all happening in the public domain. What is more interesting is what unites the majority of commentators and speakers (especially those who post under various aliases) – this is the panic fear of the mediating role of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the withdrawal of the UOC from the Moscow Patriarchate and further reconciliation and unity of Ukrainian Orthodoxy. This makes some seek to bring to the state of absurdity the logical and understandable idea of the Ecumenical Patriarch’s mediation for the reconciliation and achieving unity of Ukrainian Orthodoxy, which he set as the main goal during the events of 2018.
This raised a lot of questions: what will Ukrainian Orthodoxy be like? what to expect in the future? So let’s try to explore the issue. In order to foresee future developments, it is necessary to understand who is able to influence the situation, in which way, and for what purpose.
The Ukrainian state occupies the first and most important place in the matter of Ukrainian Orthodoxy because most of the things depend on the policy pursued by authorities.
On August 10, in an evening address to the nation, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced a “working” solution that would “strengthen spiritual independence” from Moscow.
According to Zelensky, he held a “preparatory meeting” on a decision that would deprive Moscow of “the last opportunities to limit the freedom of Ukrainians.” “And the decisions to achieve this must be one hundred percent effective – they must really work. We will ensure them,” the president emphasized.
Many associate these words with the possible consideration of Bill 8371 in Parliament but our editors had earlier reported that the President’s team is clearly aware of imperfections in the latest draft of the new legislation, which lawmakers have been struggling to pass since spring.
On July 23, the State Service for Freedom of Conscience and Ethnopolitics came out with its own portion of criticism toward Bill 8371:
“Ahead of the second reading, more than 1,200 amendments had been submitted to draft law 8371, among which, along with constructive proposals, there was a large amount of legislative spam, outright nonsense, constructions that distorted the original intention of the bill, as well as proposals not covertly aimed at completely undermining the essence of the draft law, making it impossible to actually implement it, and, ultimately, discrediting of Ukraine in the international arena.
Unwaveringly advocating the unconditional need for adopting Bill 8371 as such, the Agency points to the need to eliminate unfortunate miscalculations in its wording, filed for the second reading.”
It is worth noting what the Verkhovna Rada Chairman said in this regard.
After the latest attempt to pass Bill 8371 in the publicly available version, Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk said a compromise decision would be shaped regarding the draft law banning the UOC (MP).
In a comment to the Ukrainian Pravda newspaper, Stefanchuk said “as soon as the working group finishes finalizing the draft law on banning religious organizations affiliated with Russia and pitches it to the Conciliation Council, we will immediately set the date for the next meeting.”
Stefanchuk also spoke about the details of why it was impossible to pass draft law 8371 in its current version. He believes that there was a risk of it being appealed in the Constitutional Court. “That’s why today (July 23 – ed.) we gathered and decided to give the internal working group some time to finalize the bill. The thing is that it has changed significantly ahead of the second reading, compared to the first one.
Then on July 29, the Rada Speaker said in another interview that: “In addition to legal work, we must clearly do certain things – and we have agreed on this – that are related to canonical rather than legal matters. I won’t delve into that but we do have such plans, which we also agreed together.”
From this we can conclude that the text and wording of draft law 8371, in order to receive support from the President and the relevant state body of the central executive power, must be seriously revised before it is put to vote.
That’s exactly what the Parliament’s working group should do, developing a working draft law laying down working mechanisms and removing “political declarations” with some frankly populist norms.
In addition, the adoption of the said bill can’t be seen as the end result as such, only a tool for achieving “spiritual independence”.
The primary goal of Bill 8371 is to disallow any administrative subordination of any religious community in Ukraine to decision-making centers in the aggressor state. The State of Ukraine has put forward certain requirements for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, clarifying what exactly will be seen as completely severing ties with the Moscow Patriarchate. However, those steps already touch the sphere of canon law, and in this matter, the mediating mission of the Ecumenical Patriarchate cannot be ignored – that’s to make sure that the hierarchs and clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, who will take steps to fully sever ties with the Russian Orthodox Church, don’t fall into a schism.
Therefore, according to our editors, in the near future, Ukrainian Orthodoxy may see a revised draft law that makes it impossible for Ukrainian religious organizations to be administratively subordinated to the religious centers located in the aggressor state, and a commission of the Ecumenical Patriarch on the issue of unity of Ukrainian Orthodoxy in action.
Both the OCU and the UOC (which remains in unity with the MP) perceive such a scenario differently.
There is a significant number of pro-Ukrainian hierarchs and clergy who aim at a complete break with the MP, and are ready to talk about it with Constantinople. Metropolitan Onufriy sent messages through Metropolitan Tikhon (OCA) to the Ecumenical Patriarch, which can be considered as the first steps towards dialogue. There is also a pro-Russian part led by Metropolitan Antony Pakanich, who wants to keep the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the orbit of ROC’s interests by any means. Of course, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is trying to postpone the adoption of the revised and working version of draft law 8371 – this is being done particularly by the part that is trying to maintain the UOC as an instrument of the Russian Orthodox Church at any cost. The adoption of revised 8371 would put UOC clergy at a crossroads as to their future in Ukraine: whether it will be in the catacombs together with their colleagues who worked against the Ukrainian statehood or purification and a complete break with the MP under the canonical guarantees from the Ecumenical See.
In OCU, everything is much simpler. The OCU leadership demands that Bill 8371 be approved, presenting it as self-sufficient. Demands are often accompanied by political blackmail – as to future loyalty at the “next election”. When convincing lawmakers of the need to pass the bill ASAP, the OCU argues that, once it is voted in, the “unity of Ukrainian Orthodoxy” will come immediately – under the following formula: “all hierarchs are traitors, and the parishes will transition to us.” The mediating mission of the Ecumenical Patriarch toward the unity of Ukrainian Orthodoxy has been blocked there for more than a year, and this information spilled into the public domain, OCU spokesmen, for the sake of trying to justify themselves, tried to claim there was “Moscow’s hand in the Ecumenical Patriarchate somewhere”. Most likely, this is the scenario that Metropolitan Epifaniy may try to “sell” to the Patriarch on August 12-13 during his unannounced visit to Constantinople.
Spiritual Front of Ukraine
