Expert: Phanar creating a semi-autonomous religious structure in Ukraine

Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople

If we start from the published draft Statute of the future Local Church, then it can be concluded that a semi-autonomous religious structure will be created in Ukraine, said the political analyst Ruslan Bortnik at a press conference of the media centre "Informator. Kiev" on December 7.

According to Bortnik, this structure will be under the Patriarch of Constantinople. It can hardly claim the status of an independent, much less seen as a single Church.

“The Metropolitan will not be the main person in this Church. All disputes and the right of church appeal will belong to Constantinople, in accordance with this project,” the expert noted. “We see that this church structure will not have the right to open its representative offices abroad, to pastor the Ukrainians in the diaspora. This Church will not be able to canonize its heroes and its symbols.”

According to Bortnik, the Patriarch of Constantinople is trying to use the haste of the President of Ukraine in the process of obtaining the Tomos.

“He (Patriarch Bartholomew - Ed.) understands that the President needs at least something before the election, by any means to get this Tomos, and therefore the Patriarch of Constantinople, as an experienced politician, imposes his own rules. This haste costs the unity of this Church. <...> If the statute is implemented in the present form, we can hardly speak of independence,” Bortnik said, adding that we could receive the Local Church as a result of the process that Filaret initiated by writing a letter to Patriarch Kirill.

Earlier, the media published a draft statute adopted by the Synod of the Constantinople Church, according to which the new church structure in Ukraine will be a metropolis under the Phanar. Later, Advisor to the President Rostislav Pavlenko stated that the Council would take a decision on the statute of the Ukrainian Church.

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