Social movement for unification with OCU created in Kyiv

In order to “develop appropriate forms” for uniting the canonical Church with the church structure of Epiphany Dumenko, a social movement was created in the capital. Photo: rbc.ua

On June 11, 2020, it became known about the creation of the public movement "Orthodox Unity of Ukraine" in Kyiv, whose activities will be aimed at "developing acceptable forms of association for two Churches" – the UOC and the OCU. The creation of this organization was reported by RISU.

The organizing committee of the public organization prepared a "Memorandum on the restoration of Orthodox unity in Ukraine", in which goals and objectives of the new organization were laid down. Religious actors, scholars and journalists, who are members of the Coordinating Council, will work on the implementation of these goals and objectives.

The authors of the Memorandum claim that the clergy and laity not only of the OCU but also the UOC are allegedly “overwhelmed by the desire for unification”, which “gives the right to the founders of the social movement 'Orthodox Unity of Ukraine' to raise the question of creating favorable conditions for an ecclesiological comprehension of the problems of the Orthodox church unity of Ukraine, developing acceptable forms of association for both Churches and searching for options to establish real cooperation between them.”

The society stated that the Orthodox Ukrainians “suffered from the lack of unity of their Church” for 6 centuries, whilst Orthodoxy in Ukraine was an object of encroachment on the part of Russia and Poland “until the Orthodox Church of Ukraine emerged by the will of God”.

However, the authors of the Memorandum expressed dissatisfaction with the outcome of the “Unification Council”, because the latter, “unfortunately, <...> did not provide sufficiently a complete degree of unity of the two Ukrainian Churches."

According to the founders of "Orthodox Unity of Ukraine", the result of this "council" was the emergence of the two "canonically legitimate Orthodox Churches – the OCU and the UOC, which continue to exist separately for purely political reasons."

The existence of two Churches in the country “means to forever split a single nation” and only “the creation of a single Church in Ukraine” can save from this split, the authors of the Memorandum assure the believers. The founders of the new social movement called on all Orthodox to "join in restoring the unity of Orthodoxy in our country".

Earlier, the head of the OCU Epiphany Dumenko said that the actions of the head of Phanar did a lot of good to Orthodoxy.

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