The recognition of a new independent Orthodox Church in Ukraine threatens to split the Orthodox world. A leading Catholic scholar and observer untangles the lessons of history
One of the more unlikely side-effects of a process full of surprise and suspense – that has created a new independent Orthodox Church in Ukraine and is tearing the Orthodox world apart – is that words like “tomos” and “autocephaly” have made the headlines. No longer do I have to tell my students that an Eastern Orthodox Church is “autocephalous” if it elects its own primate and regulates its own internal life, and that a “tomos” is the decree that grants autocephaly.
To explain the roots of the current crisis, we have to go back to the beginning. Let’s start with a reminder that there are, or were, three significant Orthodox Churches in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) emerged in the confused situation after the revolution in Russia of 1917. It was quashed after a couple of years, briefly re-appeared during the German occupation of World War II, and emerged a third time with perestroika in the late-1980s.
Equally uncanonical was the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kiev Patriarchate (UOC-KP), established in 1992 and headed by Patriarch Filaret, the former Metropolitan of Kiev of the Russian Orthodox Church. Prior to the dramatic events of recent months, the only canonical Church of the three – in other words, the only one recognised by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, first among equals of Orthodox Patriarchs – was the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP). This was headed by Metropolitan Onufriy, who has the title Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine.
In a letter to the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, dated 27 July 2018, Patriarch Bartholomew confirmed that he intended to create a new autocephaly, a decision endorsed on 14 September 2018 by a synod held in Istanbul. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, under whose wing the UOC-MP nestled, retaliated furiously, going so far as to suppress the commemoration of Bartholomew during the Eucharistic liturgy.
