All Orthodox in Ukraine should reunite with Moscow, says Russian Orthodox official

August 05, 2014

An official of the Moscow Patriarchate has called upon all adherents of Orthodox Christianity in Ukraine to return to full communion with the Russian Orthodox Church.

“Return from the schism is always a process that demands repentance and is not mechanical and artificial reunion of some parts, but it is a return to the Church of those members who left it,” said the official, who was not named in the Interfax news agency article.

There are three Orthodox churches in Ukraine: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate, and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. Only the first is in full communion with the Russian Orthodox Church and other Eastern Orthodox churches recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.

 

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Further information:

• Russian Church hopes Ukrainian schismatics will return to its jurisdiction (Interfax)