PRESS RELEASE
A UKRAINIAN-AMERICAN ON THE BROTHERHOOD OF ST. ANDREW OF THE UAOC SEEKING UNITY WITH THE UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH-USA
Press Office of Bishop Ioan. March 1, 2005. On February 27, 2005, the Brotherhood of St. Andrew of the UAOC (under Metropolitan Mefodiy Kudriakov), issued a statement stating their disapproval of Metropolitan Mefodiy and decided to come under the jurisdiction of Metropolitan Constatine of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - USA. Is this decision of the Brotherhood a thoughtful, knowledgeable and prudent decision for a Ukrainian Church? Some Ukrainian-Americans fail to agree.
What, in reality, does the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-USA represent and what is its legal structure. To many Ukrainian-Americans the rebirth of the Ukrainian Church in Kyiv, after years of persecution under Moscow was, indeed, a miracle. In 1924 the Metropolitan of Kyiv, Archbishop Vasyl’ Lypkivsky sent the monk Ioan Teodorovich to serve the faithful of the Diocese of the United States as head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-USA. The Ukrainian Orthodox community embraced the pious Teodorovych, and he presided over the faithful in the United States until he passed away in 1971.
Meanwhile, back in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was experiencing even more brutal persecution and destruction. Practically all clergy and hierarchs of the newly resurrected Church of Kyiv were rounded up and shot, including the founder Metropolitan Vasyl’ Lypkivsky. The Church said to have been founded by the Apostle Andrew, was once again laid into a mass grave along with millions of faithful starved to death during the Great Terror Famine of 1932-33, planned and executed by Moscow’s leaders as an act of genocide.
The American outpost of the Church of Kyiv emerged as the legate to the spirit and assumed the responsibility for the destiny of its persecuted homeland. The cultural and administrative center in South Bound Brook, New Jersey, was established in the 1950’s as a memorial to that Genocide and its martyred clergy and faithful and today represents a permanent and immutable bond to that legacy. Metropolitan Teodorovich and his successor Patriarch Mstyslav were uncompromisingly defiant in their commitment to a continuing struggle for survival of the Church in the Diaspora and in Ukraine.
Following Patriarch Mstyslav’s death, on March 13, 1995, and against the wishes of Patriarch Mstyslav which he took to his deathbed, three bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the USA flew off to Istanbul, Turkey. Secret meetings between the bishops of the UOC-USA and Istanbul resulted in the Agreement of Dec 6, 1994. The bishops accepted the authority of a new and foreign jurisdiction pledged allegiance to a foreign prelate and assumed the positions and titles as Bishops of Ierapolis, Ierinoupolis etc. Patriarch Bartholomew, Ecumenical Patriarchate-Constantinople then accelerated his war on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by supporting the Moscow Patriarchate.
In most other Ecclesiastic communities, this Agreement, made without the prior consent of the laity would be considered appropriate, but in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church this is a violation of both an ancient legal structure and current church charter. The Ukrainian Church from its inception in 988 has always been a congregational Sobornopravna church, and as such must always receive its directives from its highest governing body the triennial Sobor. The executive branch must report to the Sobor, account for all its activities and expenditures and seek the final approval for all its deeds at that conclave. The UOC in the USA’s affiliation with the Kyiivan Patriarchate, as its U.S. diocese was never terminated nor even questioned at either of the last two Sobors.
Beneath the surface of this dispute one can find a whole litany of issues that have come to a boil throughout the UOC-USA. Many clergy and lay members who came to the UOC-USA from other denominations, i.e. the Russian "Orthodox Church of America," Carpatho-Ruthenian Church, and even scholarly and devout Catholics, never quite grasped the essence and heritage of the UOC in USA. They were ill-prepared and unfamiliar with the legal structure of the Ukrainian Church and the cultural underpinning of its spiritual tradition, the bedrock of that community. They fail to recognize the covenant with which this congregation is charged, and the depth of its commitment.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church from its establishment by Prince Volodymyr in 988 was and continues to be a unique phenomenon in the Christian World. It requires a delicate balance between the various branches of its governing organs, not unlike the division of powers between the various branches of the US government. The system works best when the balance is maintained and all the branches recognize and respect the others authority and responsibilities. Periodically this balance gets disrupted by some one branch of authority and must be redressed.
For many outsiders who do not know the source and reason behind this wisdom, this unique arrangement of authority and responsibility in an ecclesiastical setting is seen as "too democratic".
However, for Orthodox Ukrainians this shared form of government and the Church's independence is a birthright that is essential to the character and purpose of their faith. An independent "sabornopravna" Church, free from any foreign subjugation is what the Church headed by Patriarch Mstyslav and the other hierarchs forced into the diaspora Churches was, and should remain.
Lawsuits ensued because of the actions of Metropolitan Constantine and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - USA, lawsuits that pit the entire Church and hierarchy against member parishes and individual parishioners, and threatens the very essence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the USA since its founding--"sobornopravinst " (congregational rights of its members). These lawsuits promise to be examples, which could ultimately decide the individual rights of all member parishes vis a vis the Consistory in matters of property ownership, assets and administrative decision-making. Is the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-USA now hierarchical, submitting to the authority to the Archdiocese in all matters, or, as originally established, "sabornopravana", where individual parishes retain the right to control matters pertaining to the administration of their own parishes, including finances, real property and assets? The Brotherhood of Saint Andrew has called for the resignation of Metropolitan Mefodiy on the basis that Mefodiy has betrayed the “sobornist” rights of his Church, and yet they seek to attach themselves to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - USA which has been taken to court by several of its praishes precisely because of its breach of its inherent mandate to be “sobornopravna.”
The principle issue, however, remains the possible legal precedent of the possible subordination of all member parishes of the autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church to the radically different UOC-USA, with the bishops of the Church of Constantinople at its helm. Do the people in Ukraine realize that in placing themselves under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - USA and Metropolitan Constantine, they are placing themselves under the domination of the Ecumenical Patriarchiate of Constantinople, the very See which sold the Ukrainian Church to the Russian Church in 1685 for the price of 120 sable furs and 200 pieces of gold? Will history repeat itself?
Press Office of
BISHOP IOAN, M.A., Ph.D
Bishop of the Midwest
Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church - Canonical