Posted on 01/30/2020 5:17:12 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
“Despite the many challenges and opposition from ill-wishers, the past year witnessed the birth of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” Epifaniy said on December 14, 2019, at Kyiv’s St. Sophia Cathedral. “As such, a centuries-long struggle for autocephaly, establishing historical justice by freeing Ukraine from the unsanctioned control of the Russian Church over Ukraine, was accomplished.”
The move to establish the OCU heralded a historic break with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), ending more than three centuries of Russian spiritual and temporal control of the dominant faith in Ukraine.
It also sparked one of the biggest rifts within Christianity over the last millennium.
Then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the creation of the new church would “go down in history” as the day Ukraine “finally received its independence from Russia.”
After Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople — the spiritual head of Orthodox Christianity’s 300 million-strong worldwide community — issued the Tomos, or decree, that granted the OCU independence from the Moscow Patriarchate on January 5, 2019, the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) responded by severing its ties with Constantinople.
For many Ukrainians, it was a seismic, spiritual event...
While the number of UOC-MP parishes may be debated, its control over key Orthodox assets in Ukraine is not. The most prized position perhaps is the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, a hallowed monastery where mummified monks rest in labyrinthine underground caves in the Ukrainian capital. UOC-MP clergy ominously predicted that Ukrainian ultranationalists would resort to violence to seize control of Orthodox property, especially Pechersk Lavra. Those dire warnings never came to fruition, but the issue of ownership of key Orthodox sites remains acute.
Patriarch Kirill has also severed the Russian church’s ties with Bartholomew, as well as the Greek Orthodox Church and the Patriarchate of Alexandria, which is based in Egypt.
(Excerpt) Read more at eurasiareview.com ...
Patriarch Kirill - Head of the Russian Orthodox Church
Metropolitan Epiphaniy - Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine
Patriarch Bartholomew- Archbishop of Constantinople
Strange how the Holy Spirit works...you just posted your Caucus thread at the same time as me!
it was a crafty try, but is largely a failed project.
Even the breakaway patriarch Filaret whose agreement with Constantinople created the new church fiercely denounces it now as a farce, noting that the new church is actually much less independent than the old one.
The new country leader doesn’t appear inclined for forcible seizures like Poroshenko was, which is good for peace.
“” “” was a crafty try, but is largely a failed project.”” “”
Let’s say an illegitimate government Church. Invented by someone Catholic who knows nothing about Orthodoxy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.