Lecturer of Volyn Theological Seminary of UOC proposes to restore communion with Churches that recognized OCU

Archpriest Oleksandr Fedchuk, a clergyman of the Volyn Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and a lecturer at the Volyn Theological Seminary, expressed his opinion on how the Ukrainian church conflict can be resolved. The priest believes that first of all, it is necessary to restore Eucharistic communion with those Local Churches that have recognized the OCU. He is convinced that without the influence of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Ukrainian church crisis will continue. The priest wrote about this in an article published on the website of the Sophia Brotherhood.

“No Council can be held without reconciliation. First of all, we should restore Eucharistic unity with those with whom we broke it on our own initiative. Otherwise, it looks frankly strange on our part to make statements (and they are repeatedly heard from various speakers of the UOC) that we alone in Ukraine have Eucharistic communion with all the Local Churches. Or do we no longer consider those who have recognized the OCU to be such? This reconciliation is necessary primarily because without an understanding with the Ecumenical Throne, there can be no authoritative decision on our issue. It is also believed that an early understanding with world Orthodoxy will allow us to avoid harm even from the most severe actions of the Russian Orthodox Church against those who dare to depart from it,” – the archpriest wrote.

In addition, the priest believes that the UOC should make concessions on the issue of recognizing the ordinations of the former UOC-KP and UAOC. As an example, he cites the precedents that took place in the process of overcoming the split in the Bulgarian Church and the recognition of the Macedonian Church.

“The problem of concessions should be considered as a separate material, because there are also so many complex issues here, and sooner or later we will have to give a frank answer to ourselves. In the UOC, we like to ask about “impostors” among the early bishops of the UOC-KP or UAOC, about the validity of ordinations performed by excommunicated persons, or about the right of the Ecumenical Patriarch to reinstate them in the rank. However, I have yet to hear a single reasonable explanation as to why overcoming the schism in Bulgaria with the reception of the excommunicated bishops, led by Metropolitan Pimen (Yenov), in the actual rank is not the right thing to do. Or why the sudden recognition of the Macedonian Church by the Serbs is not the same. Here, however, there are at least some attempts to explain this, for example, by the tangible difference between the decision of the Pan-Orthodox Council and the sole act of the Ecumenical Patriarchate (for some reason, no one takes into account a number of historical examples that are somehow related to the actions of the Russian Orthodox Church). But no one has ever even tried to explain why it was possible to recognize thousands of Uniates ordained by Latinized bishops in 1796 or 1946 (to name a few) in a substantial rank, turning a blind eye not even to the schism but to what we call heresy! And there have also been many cases of Catholic priests being ordained to the Holy See,” – Fedchuk added.

Earlier, the Primate of the Albanian Orthodox Church, His Beatitude Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana and All Albania, called for the convening of a Pan-Orthodox Council to resolve the crisis in world Orthodoxy that arose as a result of the Ukrainian church issue.