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The voluntary transfers of parishes, clergy and faithful, from the jurisdiction of Metropolitan Onoufrios in Kyiv, of uncertain canonical status, to the only canonical Orthodox Church of Ukraine, continue unhindered and unabated.
In this reality, those who attempt to muddy the waters and the consciences of the Ukrainian faithful with supposedly «peace-loving» initiatives are at least naive (if not consciously provocateurs and underminers of both the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine), which start from comments and criticisms that invalidate the work of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, question the validity of the Tomos of Autocephaly and suggest about a… repetition of what preceded the 2018 Unification Council. This has never been done in church history, nor can it be done now.
To bring it into the Greek ecclesiastical reality and understand it better. It would be as if the schismatic «Old Calendarises» in Greece were to demand that the Ecumenical Patriarchate intervene in the Autocephalous Church of Greece and, ignoring it, recognize them as a parallel canonical jurisdiction… Whereas, the canonical way for those of them who wish to rejoin the Church is to join the Church of Greece, renouncing the schism.
The Tomos was issued with due process and validity. And the Tomos created a single canonical ecclesiastical jurisdiction throughout the internationally recognized territory of the Ukrainian State.
Those who desire canonicity should accept the Tomos of the Mother Church and join the Orthodox Church of Ukraine under His Beatitude Metropolitan Epiphany of Kyiv and All Ukraine, canonically and lifelong elected by the Unification Council of December 15, 2018.
No other ecclesiastical jurisdiction can exist in Ukraine. And even if it does exist temporarily and de facto, it cannot be recognized canonically and conciliately, nor can it be given in any way the status of a parallel canonical ecclesiastical jurisdiction.
My personal opinion, from the beginning, was and remains that Metropolitan Onoufrios in Kyiv and his clergy – who disrespectfully and impudently rejected the paternal and loving invitation of the Ecumenical Patriarch to participate in the Unification Council and become part of the solution of the Ukrainian Schism – should have been given an exclusive period of adjustment and accession to the ecclesiastical canonicity formed by the just decisions of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. And, after the expiration of this reasonable deadline, the Ecumenical Patriarchate should have proceeded with their defrocking and official declaration as schismatics, which in fact they already are, if of course they have sincerely «become independent» from Moscow. Because this separation from Moscow was done illegitimately and self-righteously, outside any canonical ecclesiastical framework. Unless – as I personally believe – they are deceiving and misleading everyone, first and foremost the Ukrainian people, who have suffered greatly from the barbaric Russian invaders. It is up to them to clarify to us whether they are ultimately schismatics or traitors…
Let us not be carried away, therefore, by the insidious attacks of «love» by some who, based on personal selfish interests and/or their rage against the Ecumenical Patriarch personally and the Mother Church in general, circulate fantasy scenarios, which ultimately aim at overturning the canonical and one-time-for-all settlements made by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Ukrainian Orthodoxy.
Let us stand aright! Let us stand in awe!
Archimandrite Romanos Anastasiadis
