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Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church calls for Crimea’s return to Kyiv

08/19/2014 UKRAINE – RUSSIA

by Nina Achmatova

A Church spokesman spoke out to this effect days after Onufry’s enthronement as the new metropolitan. Meanwhile the Russian patriarch continues his silence on Russia’s takeover of the Crimea, but is loud in his attacks against the ‘”aggressiveness” of the Uniate Church.

Moscow (AsiaNews) – The Ukrainian Orthodox Church
faithful to the Moscow Patriarchate has spoken
out in favour of the territorial integrity of the former
Soviet republic and against the annexation of the Crimea to Russia,
which took place in March after a
controversial referendum.

This comes a
few days after the enthronement on Sunday of Onufry (pictured) as the new Metropolitan of Kyiv. The latter had expressed himself against
Kremlin’s interference in the affairs of the peninsula
on the Black Sea.

Meanwhile, Moscow Patriarch Kirill remains silent over the issue of Crimea, but continues to attack Greek Catholics in Ukraine,
urging all churches to defend orthodoxy
in that country.

“As
Ukrainian citizens, we think like our
government and the international community, that the Crimea is
Ukrainian territory and must be returned,”
Archpriest Georgi Kovalenko, head of the Synodal
‘Information Department, told a news conference, as reported by
the RBC news agency.

In this context, the Ukrainian Church said it was glad that the dioceses in Crimea
are still under the jurisdiction of the
Metropolitan See of Kyiv, and have not been absorbed by the Moscow Patriarchate.

Archpriest Georgi was also keen to stress that an inter-state, not an interreligious war
was underway in eastern Ukraine.

Crimea is a sensitive issue
for the local and
Russian Orthodox Church. As regent,
shortly before the referendum on
annexation, Onufry appealed
to Moscow to do “everything
possible to preserve the territorial integrity of Ukraine. Otherwise, the unity of our two peoples would suffer a bloody wound, which would be
reflected in a painful way on our mutual relations,” the then bishop and
locum tenens said.

On this
issue,
Kirill has opted for a low profile since the beginning and chosen not to be present, for example, at the
speech President Vladimir Putin delivered in the Kremlin to enshrine the “reunification”
of the Black Sea Peninsula to Russia.

In
doing,
as AsiaNews
reported, some analysts noted the Moscow Patriarchate’s extreme
embarrassment vis-à-vis the Ukrainian
crisis, which threatens to undermine Church structures and institutions and destabilise
the plans Kirill himself had pursued in recent years.

The patriarch,
who had placed great hopes in Ukraine, is now upset by the fact, emerging
against the background of the Ukrainian crisis, that new cleavages might be
created if the demands by the Orthodox Church independent from Moscow succeed, this
at a time of doubts over the Diocese of Crimea and fears of irritating the
Metropolitan see of Kyiv.

In view
of this, reflecting Russian politics in general, the Russian Orthodox Church
found an external enemy that it claims threatens the
“integrity of its canonical
territory”, which is based on the notion that Moscow has
jurisdiction over all Orthodox faithful in
the ex-Soviet republics, including
Ukraine. The Greek Catholics are this enemy,
derogatorily called Uniates because they are in communion with the pope.

In a recent letter to the Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew, Kirill slammed the ‘”aggressiveness”
of the Uniate and schismatics (Ukrainian Churches independent from and not canonically recognised by Moscow) that seek “to seize Orthodox shrines and eradicate
Orthodoxy from the territory of Ukraine”.

The Major Archbishop of Kyiv, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, repeatedly rejected the accusations, appealing instead for
reconciliation as well as open and
sincere dialogue based on truth.

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