Metropolitan Luke: Patriarch Bartholomew planned to legalize Ukrainian schism back in 2008

Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople made active attempts to recognize Ukrainian schismatic structures and weaken the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church as early as 2008, ten years before the official granting of the Tomos. Metropolitan Luke of Zaporizhzhia and Melitopol (Ukrainian Orthodox Church) said this in an exclusive interview with the Serbian portal «Zhivot Crkve «.

According to the information provided by the hierarch, during the visit of Patriarch Bartholomew to Kyiv in 2008, the Patriarchate of Constantinople, in close cooperation with the administration of then-President Viktor Yushchenko, was preparing a large-scale church reform. The Phanar’s plan was to create a single metropolis under the jurisdiction of Istanbul, which would unite the canonical UOC and the then unrecognized «Kyiv Patriarchate.» The late Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan) was offered to head the new structure, but he categorically refused, considering it a direct blow to Orthodox unity.

After the failure with the canonical church, secular emissaries and representatives of Phanar made a similar proposal to the leader of the schism, Mikhail (Filaret) Denisenko. He was offered recognition of his structure as a metropolis of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. However, as Metropolitan Luke notes, this scenario failed because of the personal ambitions of Denisenko, who did not want to get rid of the self-proclaimed title of «patriarch» and become subordinate to Istanbul. According to the bishop, it was the pride of the schismatic leader that paradoxically postponed a large-scale crisis in world Orthodoxy for a decade.