Any revision of canonical norms that leads to a break in church unity will historically fail, Metropolitan Anthony

On May 27, 2025, on the 33rd anniversary of the Kharkiv Council and the 3rd anniversary of the Council in Feofaniya, the Chancellor of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich), published his thoughts on the conciliar structure of the Church and decisions that could be fateful for the future of Ukrainian Orthodoxy. The hierarch compared past and present events, from which he concluded that only adherence to the canonical order will allow the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to withstand difficult trials. The Metropolitan wrote about this on his Facebook account.

“Today marks the 33rd anniversary of the Kharkiv Council. It was on May 27, 1992, that the bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church gathered in the city of Kharkiv to resolve the crisis that the actions of the former Primate of the UOC had led to. The Council removed Metropolitan Filaret (Denysenko) and elected His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan) as the new Primate, who had been carrying out this high ministry with dignity for 22 years. The council made a number of other decisions that gave impetus to the rapid development of our church in all areas of Christian mission: from spiritual education, opening parishes and monasteries to social service and helping the needy. It is difficult to list all the areas and projects that our Church has initiated and led over the past three decades. That is why the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was perceived by the vast majority of Orthodox believers, who are not biased by ideological priorities, as the Church of the Ukrainian people,” – the Chancellor said.

The bishop believes that the commitment of its hierarchs to the canonical order helped the Church to overcome the crisis in which Ukrainian Orthodoxy was in the early 90s. That is why, in the opinion of Metropolitan Anthony, this attitude to church life is considered the most acceptable for the current trials that the UOC is going through.

“In order for church life to be successful, and its success is only in one thing – opening up opportunities for a particular person to come to God, there must be a solid foundation of the purity of the Orthodox faith and the canonical order. Any revision of canonical norms that leads to a break in church unity is not pleasing to God, and therefore will not stand historically. The Church will cease to be the Church of Christ if its development is based on meanings and ideas that are considered very important for our earthly life, but at the same time are not important for eternal life, and therefore contradict both the Gospel and the Tradition of the Church,” – Metropolitan Anthony added.

It should be noted that recently the Primate of the Antiochian Orthodox Church, His Beatitude Patriarch John X, expressed support for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The First Hierarch drew attention to the ongoing persecution of the UOC and canonical Orthodoxy in general in Ukraine.