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Catholic World News News Feature

New Split among Ukrainian Orthodox November 26, 2002

KIEV, Nov 26, 02 (CWNews.com) -- Ukraine, which until recently had three groups claiming to represent the country's Orthodox population, now has a fourth.

A former deacon of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate (UOCK), who emigrated several years ago to the US, has returned to Ukraine to proclaim his role as "Metropolitan Moyisey of Kiev." The latest man to lay claim to the mantle of leadership among the Orthodox people of Ukraine says that he leads the Rightful Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox National Church. Until his sudden return to Ukraine, that body existed only as a small group in the US.

During a press conference in Kiev, Patriarch Moyisey said that his group is the only true Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The other bodies, he charged, are subject to "foreign influences." He further claimed that the Rightful Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox National Church was recognized in 1924 by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. And Moysiey said that the current Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew II, had appointed him as Metropolitan.

Those claims appear suspect on two counts. First, the leader of an autocephalous Orthodox Church would ordinarily be chosen by the hierarchy of that body, not by the Patriarch of Constantinople. Second, Patriarch Bartholomew II-- who has already brokered a tentative accord to unify two of the existing rival Orthodox groups in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church and the Kiev Patriarchate-- would seem unlikely to sponsor another contender in an already crowded field.

Moyisey, in fact, claims that his mission is to achieve the unity of all Ukrainian Orthodox Christians- and indeed to bring Eastern-rite Ukrainian Catholics into the fold as well. So far the only unity his presence has sparked is that of the leaders of the three existing Ukrainian Orthodox bodies, who have shown an unusual harmony in their agreement that Moyisey's group is not canonical and should not be allowed legal registration in Ukraine. ! In the midst of the furor around Moyisey's claims, 234 members of the Ukrainian parliament, representing all parliamentary parties and factions, have set up a group called "A Single Orthodox Church for Ukraine." The members advocate the unification of the three Orthodox bodies currently operating in the country, and express the hope that once politicians have agreed on Church unity, the clergy will follow suit.

The parliamentarians' effort has an immediate logic, since the divisions among the Orthodox groups are primarily political and legal rather than doctrinal. But the prospects for any quick steps toward unity are bleak. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (in effect a survival of Soviet times), refuses to acknowledge either the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate (which broke away in 1992) or the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (established during the 1918-21 window of Ukrainian independence, and re-established shortly after Ukraine achieved independence in 1991).

The Moscow Patriarchate considers the other two groups schismatic, and maintains that the only way to unity is to reunite under Moscow. But the other groups are unwilling to submit to the Russian Orthodox Church, pointing to the Orthodox tradition of independence for national groups.

However, things may be changing. According to Les Tanyuk, a leader of the parliamentary initiative, the Moscow Patriarchate bishops in Ukraine are becoming "increasingly supportive" of a distinctly Ukrainian spirituality. Tanyuk says that the Moscow Patriarchate bishops have abandoned their policy of "politicizing and Russifying" the life of the Orthodox believers in Ukraine. But even Tanyuk see the possibility of a unified national Church in Ukraine as remote: "perhaps in 15 years time."