The editorial office of the Spiritual Front of Ukraine obtained the text of the letter that His Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew sent His Beatitude Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kyiv on July 26, 2023.
The letter was delivered to the addressee on the eve of the OCU Local Council, held on July 27, 2023, where, among other things, the Charter (Regulations) on managing the OCU was adopted. The text of the letter contains several sentences that more than clearly demonstrate the attitude of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the issue of the division in Ukrainian Orthodoxy:
“… we would like to fraternally encourage You to avoid including in these Regulations articles that would give the impression that the Orthodox Church of Ukraine aims at the preservation of the existing divisions among the Orthodox ecclesiastical presences in Your country, especially if such provisions make explicit references, by name, to the heads of these groups. From the experience of our 32-year old humble Patriarchal ministry, we can assure You, dear brother, that similar practices will only propagate the current status quo of your relations with these groups, instead of further advancing the much longed and desired goal of one unified Orthodox Church of Ukraine under Your venerable omophorion.”
Moreover, His Holiness addressed the participants of the OCU Local Council with similar, or perhaps precisely the same, theses. However, as far as our editors learned directly from the participants of the Council, nothing of this kind was read out on behalf of Patriarch Bartholomew at the OCU Council.
Why did we decide to publish this information now?
The answer is: to finally debunk unreliable and manipulative reports being circulated by jurisdictionally biased individuals about the mediating mission of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the matter of unity of Ukrainian Orthodoxy!
Here is the full text of the letter:
“Your Beatitude Epiphanius, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine, our dearly beloved and precious brother and concelebrant of our Modesty in Christ God, we embrace Your venerable Beatitude fraternally in the Lord and greet You with great joy.
In reply to Your congratulatory letter of June 8th on the occasion of the Name Day of our Modesty, we wholeheartedly thank You for the kind wishes that You addressed to us on behalf of our suffering children in Ukraine, greatly strengthening and enriching us in our humble ministry. It was for us a great source of joy that Your representative on the feast of our heavenly patron, St. Bartholomew the Apostle, was a cherished friend of the Mother Church of Constantinople, His Eminence Metropolitan Yevstratiy of Bila Tserkva, who personally delivered Your letter to us.
In this letter, You are also notifying us about Your intention to codify in a single document various Regulations and By-laws in implementation of provisions of the Charter of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. We appreciate the clarifications provided in Your letter with regard to this issue and we express our great satisfaction for Your unequivocal statement that the Tomos of Autocephaly and the Charter of Your Church in wo way are violated by certain provisions of this document, which will be adopted during Your upcoming Sobor. We are also pleased to read in the Preamble that these Regulations are in conformity with the Tomos and the Charter. In the same spirit and for the avoidance of any future hermeneutical ambiguities, we would deem beneficial the inclusion of a final article in this document, where it will be clearly stated that “The articles of these Regulations shall be interpreted in light of the Tomos of Autocephaly and the Charter of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, and in case of disagreement the provisions of these two documents shall prevail.”
On a related issue, we would like to fraternally encourage You to avoid including in these Regulations articles that would give the impression that the Orthodox Church of Ukraine aims at the preservation of the existing divisions among the Orthodox ecclesiastical presences in Your country, especially if such provisions make explicit references, by name, to the heads of these groups. From the experience of our 32-year old humble Patriarchal ministry, we can assure You, dear brother, that similar practices will only propagate the current status quo of your relations with these groups, instead of further advancing the much longed and desired goal of one unified Orthodox Church of Ukraine under Your venerable omophorion.
With these thoughts in mind, we once again cordially thank Your Beatitude for Your constant expressions of love and respect, in both words and deeds, towards Your Mother Church and our Modesty. We also take the opportunity to wish You great success at Your upcoming Sobor, with thoughtful deliberations and edifying outcomes that will further contribute to the growth and stability of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, not in isolation, but always in communion with the other local Orthodox Churches and, in particular with the martyric Holy Great Church of Church. In closing, we fraternally congratulate You for the upcoming feast of St. Prince Volodymyr, to whom we fervently pray to intercede before Christ our God, the Prince of Peace, for the speedy termination of the war in Ukraine with the long-desired victory of the pious and courageous Ukrainian people.
At the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the 26th of July, 2023
Your Beatitude’s beloved Brother in Christ,
Archbishop of Constantinople and New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch
To His Beatitude Epiphanius, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine in Kyiv”
