"Ukrainian Orthodoxy at the Turn of the Epoch. Challenges of Modernity, Tendencies of Development." Report of His Beatitude Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine Volodymyr at the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2008

Moscow, Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, June 25, 2008.


The Ukrainian Orthodox Сhurch at the present stage of development demonstrates unfailingly positive dynamics of growth, manifesting both quantitative and qualitative growth. Today our Church consists of 43 dioceses which are administered by 54 hierarchs (43 ruling bishops and 11 vicar bishops), and reckons about ten thousand and nine hundred of real parishes. In the Ukrainian Orthodox church 8962 clergymen perform their ministry (of them 8517 are priests and 445 are deacons), 20 theological educational institutions function (of them one Academy, 7 seminaries and 12 colleges) as well as 3850 Sunday schools. 4650 monks bear obedience in 175 monasteries, 85 of which are men's and 90 are women's abodes.

Rapid growth of the number of parishes resulted in amount of 400-500 parishes per diocese that made effective rule of such dioceses by one bishop impossible. Therefore the Holy Synod of our Church made a decision to divide most of the dioceses, so that bishops could communicate more closely with the flock, and the church life would develop more dynamically. The system of our theological education undergoes qualitative changes. Recently the reform of our theological educational establishments has started and the standard of theological education they give has improved.

The rate of presence of our Church in the informational space also grows dynamically. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church and its separate structural units are the founders of seventy two printed matters (fifty six newspapers and sixteen magazines). The Church is actively presented in the virtual space where sixty seven Internet editions function, including the full-fledged religious informational resources. Under the patronage of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church works the orthodox media - holding "Glas" that managed to create a professional orthodox TV-channel. The relations of the Church with various secular media actively develop, so that we get the better access to the secular audience.

In large part due to the facts mentioned the Church in Ukraine enjoys considerable confidence of the society. So, according to the data of the survey carried out last year, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is a leader of public confidence among the other public institutes, having got the highest rate of public support - fifty eight percent.

Performing its salutary mission in modern society the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has to take into account the socio-cultural peculiarities of our country. According to the American scientist Samuel Huntington: "Ukraine is a split country with two different cultures"[1]. Though this statement may seem too categorical, nevertheless it reflects the real situation to a high extent. Today we have to speak of the two poles of the Ukrainian culture, of the two different orbits of civilization: the eastern and the western ones.

The Eastern Ukrainian world concentrated mainly on the left bank of the Dnieper, was formed as a result of the creative interaction of the Ukrainian and Russian cultures. The Western Ukrainian civilization community was located mainly on the right bank of the Dnieper, and, on the contrary, it developed as a result of interaction with the Polish, Austrian, Romanian, Lithuanian and other European cultures. For this reason the culture and civilization of the Right-bank Ukraine are west-oriented.

These two communities - the Ukrainian East and the West - are different, but inseparable because they have much in common: language, history and culture, but, perhaps, the most important - Christianity having one and the same origin - the Baptism of the Holy Prince Vladimir.

The mission of Ukraine cannot be reduced to the function of a buffer zone between the East and the West. Ukraine is the self-sufficient socio-cultural space facing the challenge of finding its own internal integrity through the synthesis of the heritage of the East and the West. In the seventeenth century, in the days of the Holy Hierarch Peter Mohyla, the Ukrainian nation and the Ukrainian Church already faced a global problem of cultural reform on the basis of synthesis of the cultures of the Western and Eastern Europe. Today the Church is again called to initiate formation of the socio-cultural space in which the antagonism of the western and eastern elements of the culture will be creatively transformed into the synthetic unity on the basis of the Orthodox tradition.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is a unique church structure and one of the few social institutes in Ukraine, having strong support both on the left and on the right banks of the Dnieper. That is why it can be and should be the center around which will the eastern and the western socio-cultural communities should be united. The West and the East, the adherents of European choice and Slavic integration, all the citizens of Ukraine, irrespective of their political convictions and civilization preferences are the children equally dear to our Church, equally demanding love, understanding and spiritual care. Accordingly, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church does its best to remain free of the political and ideological context.

Now we face a new threat of fragmentation of the Orthodoxy in Ukraine in the lines dividing the socio-cultural community inside our country. The political forces both inside and outside Ukraine foster this division. As a result the Church in Ukraine can be split into several Orthodox jurisdictions. It will not bring ecclesiastic peace to Ukraine and will not save it from further dissents. On the contrary, such policy is fatal for the unity of the Church in Ukraine; it will inevitably lead to new dissents and controversies which may also negatively affect the panorthodox unity.

Still there are a lot of threats with which our Church faces. These threats are the result of the tendencies of development of the modern Ukrainian society. Among them one should note nationalism, secularization, and consumerism.

As for nationalism, the popularity of this ideology reached its peak in Ukraine in the 90-ties of the past century and it was conditioned by the processes of national revival and of the state foundation. One of the main objects for criticism on the part of adherents of this ideology became the canonical and prayful communion of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church with the Moscow Patriarchate. "Your Church is alien to the Ukrainian spirit. You are the opponents of the Ukrainian independence. While the Moscow Patriarchate exists in Ukraine, its independence delusive". - All the sorts of accusations were made on our part, all possible means were resorted to by the nationalistically biased politicians in order to complicate the life and ministry of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. We lived in the conditions of informational blockade, there were attempts to declare our Church "anti-Ukrainian", we were illegally deprived of our churches and property.

All this time we courageously resisted the attacks and oppressions. At the same time our resistance to nationalist ideology did not affect negatively our readiness to take part in the national and state revival of Ukraine. Keeping spiritual communion with the Russian Orthodox Church we have become the genuine Church of the Ukrainian nation which holds in due respect the national history and the traditions of our country, the country we live in and perform our mission and whose organic part we are. Humbly bearing the undeserved accusations of betrayal of the national interests, we proved the Ukrainian society in deed and not in name that our Church is flesh from the flesh of the Ukrainian nation, that Ukraine is our native land, that we hold dear the Ukrainian history and traditions, and we are an organic part of the modern Ukrainian society.

If the Ukrainian society on the whole has already recovered from the problem of nationalism, consumerism and secularization are the phenomena whose sinful attractiveness enchants people more and more. Trying to liberate man from imaginary "dictatorship of religion", secularism breaks off real communion of man with God and the Church. As a result the Church turns into a confessional grouping, the faith - into a system of views of relativistic character, prayerful experience - into a private psychological experience of an individual. As a French researcher Jean - Paul Willem writes, the position of religions in the modern world can be described by the phrase "to believe, but not to belong to", as well as by the phrase "to belong, but to not believe"[2]. The modern conscience more and more tends to some ephemeral faith, more and more deprived of the attributes of churchliness. On the other hand, formal belonging to one or another Christian faith does not necessarily imply that an individual possesses the real Christian faith.

A person, who lost connection with the Church, inevitably turns into an egoist focused upon consumption. Secularist society inevitably comes to the ideology of consumption. Having left the sacral space of the Church, man tries to establish relations with other individuals through things, through goods. Goods become a fetish; ithey are expected to work a miracle - a miracle of communion to a new way of living. So the view of the Church is substituted by the pagan one: the goods are bestowed on the sacral dignity, the thing is idolized, and man whose original vocation was domination over the world of things, turns into their slave. As professor Stearns, one of the researchers of the phenomenon of consumerism notes, this phenomenon "triumphs over absolutely all states, irrespective of their historical, cultural and religious traditions, as well as sociopolitical structure[3]. In our countries consumerism is a new phenomenon, but it is indicative that for the last few years this ideology quickly spread its influence on the society, especially upon the youth.

How can the Church help the society to oppose the new temptations? Making man a participant in the grace of salvation, the Church conveys him a Trinitarian way of living devoid of all egotism. Due to this grace the effect of temptations on man weakens, illusoriness and delusiveness of the purpose he was urged to by sin become obvious. The church cannot and should not limit a freedom of a personality, imposing some or other decisions. But we can and must return the man an acuteness of vision, pointing out the dangers that bear the destructive ideology of consumption.

Against the background of these challenges which today constitute the most serious threat for the Church today and, finally, for the society, the question of healing schisms in Ukraine becomes highly relevant. For almost twenty years the church schisms split our society, being the source of constant conflicts. They radically weaken the Church, interfering with its mission in the society. In Ukraine the charismatic movements thrive against the background of the orthodox schisms, people turn away from the Church and go to sects. Moreover, with every passing year the wall that divides the Orthodox in our country becomes even higher, and society would soon see the presence of several Orthodox Churches in the Ukraine as a norm. We should not forget our brothers and sisters on the other side of this wall. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has some eleven thousand parishes, while the number of parishes remaining out of the communion with Universal Orthodoxy amounts to some four thousand. These figures show that millions of the Orthodox Christians in the Ukraine are out of the ecclesiastic communion. They are deprived of the grace of the Holy Sacraments, and their eternal salvation is in danger. Therefore we, as responsible pastors, must take decisive actions to overcome the schism.

It is well known that schism was caused by lots of reasons, among which there were politicization of the life of the Church, penetration of the nationalist ideology of ethnophyletism in it, arrogance and impenitence of the leaders of schism. One more essential precondition of schism was polarization of the Ukrainian society into the East and West. So the social basis of the schism is the Western Ukraine region, characterized by cultural and civilizational orientation to the West, as it was mentioned above. There the autocephalous movement was initiated and some seventy percent of all autocephalous structures are located there.

For overcoming schism it is necessary to consider all the specified reasons and preconditions. Therefore the Ukrainian Orthodox Church strives to distant itself from any political and ideological platforms, since they do not unite, but separate people in Ukraine. We also do not take the responsibility to determine any civilizational choice of the Ukraine. In December of the past year the Ukrainian Orthodox Church held the Council of Bishops at which the problem of politicization of ecclesiastic life and its respective negative consequences were discussed. Being guided by pastoral motives, the Council denounced the so-called "political Orthodoxy", having declared to the extremist forces inside our Church that their activity harmed the church interests, including the efforts aimed at overcoming the church schism. Now we expect that similar steps tol be made by the representatives of the self-proclaimed Kyivan Patriarchate whose ideological platform stipulates for the "political Orthodoxy".

As shows the dialogue of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church with so-called Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, cooperation in the domain of overcoming schism becomes constructive and fruitful when our partners manifest sincerity in intentions and readiness to accept arguments of other party. The UAOC at present has essentially reconsidered many positions which caused confusion among the clergy and the faithful of our Church before. In particular, it has publicly condemned ethnophyletism and has rejected it as a method of church organization. It has made an important statement that counts priority overcoming of schism on the basis of the canonical Tradition of the Church. The leaders of the UAOC introduced necessary ecclesiological specifications to such concepts as "autocephaly", "national church", "nationalism" which are in the centre of the debate in Ukraine today.

The representatives of schismatic groupings of the UOC KP and the UAOC made special addressed to our Church in which their view of the church crisis in Ukraine and the ways of its overcoming were stated. As the analysis of these documents has shown, both the UAOC and UOC KP relate the question of healing schism to obtaining of the new canonical status by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The similar position is assumed by the Ukrainian state authorities.

In fact, one can suggest with a high degree of probability that the improvement of the canonical status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church would foster the return of the schismatic groupings. However, it would not solve the problem of the church unity in Ukraine since many representatives of the episcopacy, clergy and laymen in our Church are not ready to refuse the existing canonic communion with the Russian Orthodox Church. Participating in the discussions on the concept of autocephaly and the future of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, we face the two contradictory positions. On the one hand, there is an opinion that autocephaly is destructive for the church unity. However it logically follows that there is no church unity between the Local Orthodox Churches having the autocephalous status, there is no church unity, and it radically contradicts the Orthodox doctrine of the Church. On the other hand, there is an opinion, that autocephaly is a unique and non-alternative way of solution of the Ukrainian church problem. This position is inconsequent as well. Autocephaly cannot be an instrument of consolidation of the Church - it can be only a result of the church consensus achieved. Besides, as historical experience shows, premature autocephaly may be the reason of further dissents inside the Church.

For the reasons mentioned the Ukrainian Orthodox Church today prefers to consider the problem of healing the existing church schism from the pastoral point of view, avoiding the issues which provoke lots of controversy. It means that we are ready to discuss the problems of overcoming the schism, but are not ready to discuss the change of the status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church since we consider it premature and harmful for the modern ecclesiastic life.

These are the standpoints we insist on in our dialogue with the state. Considering this dialogue in more detail, first of all I would like to mention some positive issues of the attitude of the present Ukrainian government to the Church. We are happy that the problems of spiritual revival of the Ukrainian society are not alien to our politicians, that they take charge of the society consolidation of and consider the Church to be its ally in solution of this problem. It is an encouraging sign in the situation of secularization processes all over the world when politicians turn their back to the Church and ignore the spiritual aspect of development of the society. We are happy that the state in Ukraine is concerned with the problem of the church schism and considers its overcoming to be one of the major tasks.

At the same time, active participation of the state in solution of the church problems may have its negative effects. The state might have good intentions, but the ways of their realization might lead to worse consequences, when the new schisms emerge in the place of the old one. The danger of such development of the situation arises when representatives of the government ignore the standpoint of the largest Church in Ukraine, undertake some or other actions aimed at healing the schism behind its back, without consulting its Primate. In such cases we consider the actions of our government incompetent and exceeding the limits stipulated by the Constitution of Ukraine in the domain of the church-state relations. Usually it refers to the local officials who follow at the local levels the instructions of the central authorities which they might have misheard. At the same time we expect more constructive cooperation with the state in the solution of such essential problems as teaching the Christian ethics at schools, performing pastoral ministry in the army and prisons. We also expect satisfaction of our legal demands to give the churches the status of legal entity and return of the expropriated property in the framework of property restitution.

So, one of the most painful problems of the Orthodoxy in Ukraine is the schism. Since the church unity was chosen the subject of the present Council of Bishops, I focused attention at the question of restoring the church unity in Ukraine. I hope that the episcopacy presenting here the Fullness of the Russian Orthodox Church will give an estimate of complexity and urgency of this problem through the conciliar definitions.


Press-service of the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church