Clergymen of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (in unity with the Moscow Patriarchate) appealed to the Ecumenical Patriarchate with a request to grant their parishes the special status of stauropegium or temporary exarchate for a transitional period of several years. Clergymen expressed concern about the division in the Orthodox circles of Ukraine caused by the events related to the formation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) in 2018.
“We appeal to the Holy Mother Church of Constantinople with a request to grant the undersigned parishes a separate status of stauropegium or temporary exarchate for a transitional period of several years, with a bishop appointed by you. We ask you to accept our parishes under your omophorion,” says the appeal of UOC (MP) priests published by UOC (MP) priest Andrii Pinchuk.
UOC (MP) priests note that they have no influence over the actions of their bishops, many of whom did not attend the All-Orthodox Council in 2016 and the Council associated with the formation of the OCU in 2018. They also noted that many parishioners are unwilling to join the OCU because of the “aggressive methods of OCU supporters.”
In their address to Patriarch Bartholomew, the clergy of the UOC (MP) expressed readiness for a transitional period in order to run awareness campaigns among their parishioners and prepare them for “acceptance of what they were set against for several decades.”
“Today, there is a war going on in our country, we do not have any moral right to be part of the Moscow Patriarchate, but the vast majority of parishioners and priests are not ready to join the OCU, due to the long-standing burden of mutual resentment, which is burdened by the revanchist attitudes of the OCU clergy in relation to the clergy and believers of the UOC,” says the address published by Pinchuk.
The letter also emphasizes the need to restore Eucharistic communication with the Ecumenical See, which was suspended after the events related to the formation of the OCU because the bishops of the UOC (MP) “are silent and taking no steps to resolve the issue.”
