On January 24, 2008 on the site of the People's Movement of Ukraine (leader
B.Tarasyuk) the Statement of this political party was published, concerning the consecration of the
Holy Equal to the Apostles Prince Vladimir Church in the premises of the
Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
Refraining
consciously from
participation in the political life of the country, the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church holds in respect all the political forces, directing their activity at
strengthening the Ukrainian national statehood and the social and political
stability in the country.
In the context of this
respectful attitude we would like to comment the above-mentioned Statement of
the People's Movement of Ukraine by B.Tarasyuk,
where the anxiety was expressed on the occasion of opening the chapel on the
premises of the Committees of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
First of all we'd like to
assure the leadership of the People's Movement of Ukraine and the Ukrainian community that opening a
chapel on the premises of the Ukrainian Parliament can not cause "tension among
representatives of different confessions". The Committees of the Verkhovna Rada
of Ukraine is an establishment with a restricted access, where the people's
deputies and the Verkhovna Rada employees work. So there are grounds for hope that due to the high level of
culture appropriate of the people's representatives the opening of the church
will not lead to any confessional conflicts.
Remembering the events that
happened at the end of 80-ties - the beginning of 90-ties one can hardly agree with
the allegation of B.Tarasyuk that "in the Ukrainian state throughout the years
of independence the society managed to avoid the interconfessional conflicts,
and the tolerance and mutual respect have been always observed among the
believers of different confessions".
Unfortunately, the facts of
interconfessional conflicts and intolerance of the believers took place. Taking
this into account, the leaders of the main religious confessions, including the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church leaders, have repeatedly addressed their faithful
with the appeal to treat the representatives of other denominations with
tolerance and Christian love.
However the canon law of
the Eastern Church does not foresee performing the divine services "in a prayer
room devoid of confessional attributes" (neither does the canon law of the
Catholic Church, the part of which is the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church).
According to the Church tradition the divine service is to be held on the premises of a temple, and the
prayer rule is to be read in front of the holy icons. Thus, the idea of making
the non-confessional prayer room suggested by B.Tarasyuk is a canonical
utopia. The presence of the holy icons
in such a room is already a confessional attribute, denoting affiliation to the
Orthodox or Catholic Churches. (While the most part of protestant denominations
unreasonably consider the worship of holy icons to be a heresy and a display of
paganism).
Therefore the logics of the
founders of the Holy and Equal to the Apostles Prince Vladimir Church is quite
understandable. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is not only the
largest confession in Ukraine, but also the only Orthodox Church institution,
remaining in the prayerful and Eucharistic communion with the Universal
Orthodoxy. Therefore consecration of
the church was performed by Primate of the UOC His Beatitude Metropolitan
Volodymyr and the clergy of the canonical Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
At the same time, entrance
to the church is open for all comers who need it (except the sanctuary, where
only clergymen are admitted) irrespective of their affiliation. It is possible to enter the church both for
the faithful of the canonical UOC, and to the members of the self-proclaimed
"autocephalous churches" - the UAOC and the UOC-KP. Thus, the establishment of the chapel does not provoke interconfessional
conflicts, but on the contrary, enables the people's deputies and the employees
of the Verkhovna Rada pray for the peace all over the world and for the quiet
and peaceful life, which the country lacks so much.
Considering the separation
of the Ukrainian Orthodoxy to be a tragedy for the Church and society, the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church takes certain steps to heal the schism. The Commission of our Church on the Dialogue with the UAOC has
been established and functions now. At the end of the previous year there was a
meeting of Primate of the UOC His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr with Rector
of the Kyiv Orthodox Theological Academy Dmitriy (Rudyuk), representative of
the UOC-KP. Some analysts believe this meeting may initiate the beginning of
the dialogue between the UOC and the UOC-KP with the purpose of healing the
schism (the possibility of such dialogue in case of observing certain
conditions on the part of the UOC-KP was more than once confirmed in the
statements of the Holy Synod of the UOC).
The dialogue between the
UOC and the representatives of the autocephalous movement is not only possible,
but just necessary. But it is possible
only on condition of non-interference of any political forces into the church life.
Therefore we hope that the People's Movement of Ukraine will be more careful and responsible in the
future about commenting the events of the church life and refrain from the statements
grounded on unverified data or biased expert judgement.
Respectfully,
† Alexander,
Bishop of Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyi
Vicar of the Kyiv Metropolis
Secretary to the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
Kyiv, January 25, 2008 | |
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