"For the good of Christianity as a whole": the UGCC said that they do not abandon relations with the UOC

The head of the UGCC Commission on Interconfessional and Interreligious Relations, Ihor Shaban, said that ecumenical dialog is poorly developed in Ukraine. The representative of the UGCC complained that the Orthodox denominations of Ukraine avoid communication with Greek Catholics, while the UGCC itself is ready for dialog even with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. He told about this in an interview with the Department of Information of the UGCC.

«Unfortunately, in Ukraine now there is no ecumenical dialog in the classical sense at all. Because it requires at least two parties, and so far only the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is open to such a dialog and would like to have it. We expect certain answers from other denominations, but so far we have not received these answers,» the UGCC representative said.

He also added that ecumenical dialog with Orthodoxy is the key direction for the sake of which the UGCC is ready to communicate not only with the OCU, but also with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. According to Shaban, contacts with the UOC are necessary despite the political situation around this Church.

«I will say about Orthodoxy in general: we would like to have a dialog with the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, which is currently represented by two Churches — the OCU and the UOC. We are ready for this and expect that the Orthodox brothers will also have this desire. […] Speaking specifically about the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, this application — of the Moscow Patriarchate, of course, complicates the attitude of Ukrainian society, although they have declared that from 2022 they are a separate Church, not affiliated with Moscow. However, there are certain canonical points in the Church environment from which it is not so easy to move away. […] This does not deny the fact that many priests and laity belong to this Church because they believe they are saved there. Therefore, I would not deny certain relations with the UOC for the good of Christianity as a whole: we can not reject a person because he prays to God in this Church», — said Igor Shaban.

We shall remind you that earlier the head of the UGCC Sviatoslav Shevchuk shared his vision of the development of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic union. Shevchuk claims that the UGCC, although it is in communion with the Vatican, does not belong to the «Western Patriarchate». He believes that the UGCC should become the foundation for a «united Kiev church,» so the Uniates cannot give up the idea of gaining the status of a «patriarchate» in order to equalize their rights with other local churches.