Word of His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr of Kyiv and All Ukraine

Dear brothers and sisters!

First of all I would like to greet all of you on the Kyivan lands, in the ancient capital of Rus. Staying here, at the sacred Lavra of Caves, under the Protecting Veil of the Theotokos, at the healing relics of the Venerable Fathers of the Kyiv Caves, let's have recourse to their prayerful assistance in solution of the difficult tasks our commission faces.    

Let me remind you that on July 27, 2009, here, at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, in the session of the Holy Synod chaired by His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill the decision was adopted to set up the Inter-Conciliar Presence of the Russian Orthodox Church (Journal № 55). Then the Provision on the Inter-Conciliar Presence was approved, as well as its composition.    The Inter-Conciliar Presence is a consultative body, assisting the higher church authorities of the Russian Orthodox Church in preparation of the decisions concerning the most important issues of the internal life and external activities of the Russian Orthodox Church" (Provision on the Inter-Conciliar Presence, I.1). This body is intended, first of all, for the discussion of the topical issues of the church being. 


The first session of the Presidium of the Inter-Conciliar Presence was held on January, 29, 2010 in Moscow, at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The presidium has approved of thirteen commissions of the Inter-Conciliar Presence. One of these commissions is intended for the issues of opposing ecclesiastical schisms and their overcoming.    

The fact that the first session of our commission is held in Kyiv is not simply a tribute to the ancient capital of Rus. It is also an answer to the essential need of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.  For it is in Ukraine that the problem of the church divisions is mostly urgent today.  For the past two decades our Church ship has experiences a lot of troubles.  As a result today in Ukraine together with the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, preserving unity with the Moscow Patriarchate, there are several non-canonical formations, which seceded from our Church. The largest of them is the Ukrainian Orthodox Church- Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP) and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC).  In order that we might estimate the scope of the church divisions in Ukraine, I will present the government statistical data.  As for January 1, 2010 the State Committee of Ukraine for Nationalities and Religions registered 11 704 communities of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, 4 251 communities of the UOC-KP and 1 194 communities of the UAOC. Thus, by now more than 5 thousand communities in Ukraine are out of communion with the Universal Orthodoxy.  It is an essential number. In fact, the number of faithful of the non-canonical church structures in Ukraine exceeds the size of some Local Orthodox Churches. And it is a serious challenge for all of us.

Schisms are the bleeding wounds on the body of the Church of Christ, requiring skillful and attentive treatment.  And it is so painful to hear from the lips of the faithful of our Church the statements that we should not worry about the fate of our brothers and sisters, staying outside Eucharistic communion with us.  It is painful to hear the words of contempt towards our compatriots entering the non-canonical communities from the people who consider themselves Christians.   

Refusal to heal the wound of schism contradicts to the very spirit of the Gospel, and comes into conflict with the teaching of the Church Fathers.  Let's recall the words of the Savior:  "What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying? If it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray. So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish." (Matthew 18, 12-14). Are not these words the direct appeal for us to spare no effort for returning of our brothers to the salutiferous fold of the Church?  Recall that for the Holy Apostle Paul even a thought about his brothers in flesh, who had not accepted Christ, was a great sorrow and an incessant torment of heart.  He even agreed to be separated from Christ the sake of his kinsmen according to the flesh (Romans 9, 2-3).

This torment of heart is natural for every Christian seeing his brother erring. And this pain should urge us to do our best for overcoming church divisions. 

In the course of his visit to Ukraine in summer 2009, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill said more than once about this pain. Thus, in the course of the Divine Liturgy, on the commemoration of the Holy Equal-to-the Apostles Prince Vladimir here at the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra His Holiness said: "The festive mood of this day includes some sad tones. This sadness comes from the fact that not all our brothers of the same faith celebrate this holiday with us. Some of them stay outside of the salutary church fencing, its precious unity. Let's pray for them so that God granted them His mercy, inspired them with resolution to neglect all the temporary human passionate and sinful obsessions, and to return to the Father's home, to reunite with us in joy and  singleness of heart,  so that we jointly asserted the everlasting values of the Holy Gospel".  His Holiness promised to do his best so that "the unified Church of Christ, the Church Martyress and Confessor, who had been faithful to Christ even until death and had shared the destiny of her people, regained the power and the possibility to embrace all her faithful children with motherly embracement".   

In these words of the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church we see clear pastoral imperative, encouraging us to act.    

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has undertaken much effort for healing the schisms. Thus, as early as November 22, 1995 the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church established a Synodal commission for the dialogue with the UAOC (Journal No. 67). And after in 2007 the UOC-KP and the UAOC sent us their official statements, on July 16, 2008 the Holy Synod adopted response addresses to these statements, in which clear intention of our Church to do all possible for overcoming the existing divisions. The document addressed to the UOC-KP that time reads as follows: "Being aware of the necessity of the quickest overcoming of ecclesiastical schisms in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is ready for constructive dialogue and cooperation with all the interested parties."   Such stance of our Church obtained support on the part of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, who pointed out many times the necessity of searching the ways for overcoming schisms in the summer of 2009 during his visit to Ukraine.   

On September 9, 2009, the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church passed the decision to renew the dialogue with the UAOC and approved the new composition of the Synodal Commission to conduct this dialogue, and set up the working group entrusted with the duty  of preparation of the dialogue with the UOC-KP representatives.   

Besides, in the period of preparation for the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, in January 2009 we put forward an initiative of setting up a commission to deal with the detailed study of the ecclesial situation in Ukraine and to formulate qualified propositions on healing the ecclesial divisions. 

Today we are holding the first session of the Commission of the Inter-Conciliar Presence of the Russian Orthodox Church for opposing and overcoming ecclesiastical schisms. We consider establishment of this Commission to be the response of His Holiness to the initiatives we put forward in January 2009. On board of the commission are representatives of the episcopate and clergy, church and public figures, representatives of the theological science.   

In compliance with the resolution of the Presidium of the Inter-Conciliar Presence at today's session we are to define the priority of the subjects approved for our commission's consideration, and to discuss our further work order.  

I wish all the participants of our session the help of God in this very difficult and responsible work. I hope that our efforts directed for the benefit of the Church of Christ will be a success.  


† Volodymyr,
Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine,
Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church