Metropolitan Theodosiy calls on the head of Phanar to suspend Tomos for OCU

Patriarch Bartholomew embraces Epifaniy Dumenko. Photo: Press Service of the President of Ukraine

Metropolitan Theodosiy of Cherkasy, in an interview with the Greek resource Romfea, urged Patriarch Bartholomew to suspend the Tomos granted to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) and acknowledge his intervention in the Ukrainian situation as a mistake.

“You erred in your decisions, as any person, even one endowed by God with a high rank and great experience, can err,” the hierarch said in his address. “The fruits of these errors are being reaped not only by the faithful of Ukraine but also by the entire Orthodox world, which now stands on the brink of a schism comparable to that of 1054. Ukrainian schismatics should never have been admitted into the Church without repentance and subsequent lawful ordinations. It is absolutely certain that a significant portion of Orthodox hierarchs worldwide will never – neither now nor in the future – accept these individuals and their followers as legitimate bishops. Anyone who thinks otherwise is gravely mistaken!”

The Metropolitan described the cancellation of the 1686 Letter, which transferred the Kyiv Metropolis to the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church, by Phanar as a “fatal error.”

“Now we must all somehow resolve these deeply painful issues. And it is our generations, yours and mine, that must address this heavy burden and not leave it for future generations. The more entrenched this painful status quo becomes, the more insoluble the Gordian knot in Orthodoxy will be,” emphasized Metropolitan Theodosiy.

He stated that resolving the Ukrainian church issue is impossible before the end of the war:
“Only after the war in Ukraine has ended and our Church has been freed from state repression will the bishops, clergy, and monastics of Ukraine be able to freely express their opinions and state their positions on canonical issues regarding the Church's existence in Ukraine,” the hierarch believes.

He also stressed that solving this problem requires the involvement of other Local Churches, either through a meeting of delegations or in the format of a Pan-Orthodox Council.

“It is fundamentally important that at such a meeting or Council, the presence of church groups whose apostolic succession is not recognized by at least one of the universally acknowledged Local Orthodox Churches is excluded from the outset. Additionally, all decisions must be made strictly within the framework of the sacred canons and rules of the Holy Orthodox Church, with respect for the historically established territories of the Local Churches,” the Cherkasy hierarch stated.

Until such a Council is convened, he called on Patriarch Bartholomew to “temporarily suspend” the Tomos for the OCU and declare “a general moratorium on concelebration and communion between Orthodox clergy and this religious group.”

“This could not only ease tensions between the Local Churches but also help us all return to Eucharistic communion among ourselves – a guarantee of peace and unity of mind. In this way, further escalation of the schism in global Orthodoxy could be prevented, and the persecution of Christians in modern Ukraine might be slowed to some extent,” Metropolitan Theodosiy emphasized.

He concluded that “the very problem of the OCU and all that is associated with it could be resolved after the war in Ukraine based on the canonical rules of the Holy Orthodox Church.”

As previously reported by the UOJ, a Greek theologian discussed whether a Pan-Orthodox Council could be convened without the head of Phanar.

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