“SLC” in Ukraine: a matter of our loyalty to the Church theology

The creation of the SLC is actively lobbied by President Petro Poroshenko

In this difficult period in the development of Ukrainian society, calls have been frequented to create the so-called ”Single Local Church”.

The country's top officials did not just try to join the hysteria in this regard, but even endeavored to lead the process, promising their voters to "solve" this "problem" in a very short period of time. The mass media, in their turn, immediately rushed to please their readers with fresh sociological layouts, in which they told the society what they needed to want, who to love and what to believe.

But still there is one aspect that does not look like old Komsomol agitprops, sprinkled with modern cosmetics, which are used by today's fail journalists who have not yet forgotten their turbulent youth and who employ familiar methods of total dupement.

This aspect has to do with the very essence of the Church, with its self-consciousness and the most fundamental foundations of faith. This is not just a matter of jurisdiction or canonicity; it is an issue of our faithfulness to the theology of the Church about Herself as it is set forth in the Creed. That is, it is a matter of preserving the purity of faith and, consequently, of our eternal salvation.

By establishing His Holy Church, the Lord gives His disciples the promise that "the gates of hell shall not prevail against Her" (Matthew 16, 18), because He Himself is the Head and Sanctifier of the Church (Ephesians 5, 23). Due to the unity of the Head and Body, the Church is conceived as the One and Only God-Man Organism, in which each of its members becomes a participator in the fruits of the redemptive deed of Christ the Savior. The Venerable Iustin (Popovich), summarizing the entire patristic teaching on the unity and uniqueness of the Church of Christ, writes: "As the Person of the God-Man of Christ is one and only, so is the Church – founded by Him, and in Him, and on Him – one and only. The unity of the Church inevitably arises from the unity of the Personality of the God-Man of Christ. Being one and only God-Incarnate organism in heaven and on earth, the Church, according to all heavenly-terrestrial laws, cannot be divided. Any division would mean Her death."

The unity of the Holy Church is revealed first of all in the unity of the Eucharist, performed in the Church. The pledge of the unity of the Eucharist, according to St. Ignatius the God-bearer, disciple and successor of the Apostles, consists in the unity of the bishop, who heads the Eucharistic community – the Church. In the seventh chapter of the Epistle to the Smyrnians, the saint writes: "Only the eucharist that is performed by the bishop or those who are authorized by him is true," and in the fourth chapter of the Epistle to the Philadelphians, we find the following idea of the saint: "One flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ and one cup in the unity of His blood, one altar, like one bishop with presbyter and deacons, so that whatever you do, you do in the name of God." That is why the canonical law of the Holy Church firmly established the rule being important for understanding the essence of the Church: there can be only one bishop in one city.

The 16th Rule of the Double Council clearly describes the possibility of the bishop's appointment to the pulpit: "The bishop shall not be enthroned at all in the Church whose primate is still alive and dignified, unless he himself voluntarily renounces the bishopric, for it is first necessary to bring to an end a legal investigation of the guilt, for which he can be removed from the bishopric, and then upon his defrocking, to enthrone a new bishop instead of him. If any of the bishops, being in dignity, does not want to abdicate, and does not want to spiritually guide his people, but, departing from his episcopacy, remains more than six months in another place and is not expostulated either by the tsar's order or by the Patriarch's instructions; if he cannot be justified with having a serious illness that makes him completely immovable, but is away from his episcopacy elsewhere for more than six months, such bishop shall be deemed completely alien to Episcopal honor and dignity. For the one, who does not care for the flock entrusted to him and who spends more than six months in a another place, is defined by the Holy Council as completely alien to the hierarchy in which he was positioned in order to feed, and has to be replaced by another bishop instead of him."

The emergence of this rule has to do with the inner deep experience of the Church’s unity, revealed through the unity of the eucharistic ecclesiastic meeting headed by a bishop. The presentation of another bishop along with the already existing means that the unity has already been broken. This is possible only in those cases about which the canon speaks above – condemnation for obvious sins or heretical thoughts and unreasonable leaving of the department for a long period. If, in some city, there is already a canonical bishop, then appointing some other bishop in this city does not simply become a violation of the canons but suggests the existence of another, parallel Eucharist, and therefore, of a "different Christ" and "another Church". This is a direct trampling of the dogma of the unity of the Church, clearly and unambiguously expressed in the Creed.

Now let's try to consider all of the above in the context of today's church situation in Ukraine. In the capital city of Ukraine – Kiev – there is already a canonical lawful bishop – Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, His Beatitude Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine Onufry. The legality of his election and enthronrment was recognized by all the Local Orthodox Churches, whose representatives served the hierarchs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on the day of enthronement of Metropolitan Onufry. They were representatives of the Local Churches: Constantinople – Metropolitan Emmanuel of France, Alexandria – Metropolitan Athanasios of Kyrenaika, Jerusalem – Metropolitan Timothy of Vostra, Russian – Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Georgia – Metropolitan Sergiy of Nekre and Metropolitan Grigol of Poti and Khobi, Serbia – Bishop Anthony of Moravichy, Romania – Metropolitan Niphont of Tirgovishti, Bulgaria – Bishop Naum of Ruse, Greece – Bishop Procopius of Christianopoluos, Poland – Archbishop Abel of Lublin and Chelm, the Czech Lands and Slovakia – Archimandrite Seraphim (Shemiatovsky), the Orthodox Church of America and Canada – Bishop Michael of New York and Bishop Irenaeus of Quebec, the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad – Archbishop Mark of Berlin.

Now the mouth of the mouthpieces of the so-called autocephaly suggests that the Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew is ready to grant the status of an autocephalous Church in Ukraine. But, as one of the main media faces of this process, Archimandrite Kirill (Govorun), admits it is necessary to create a church-administrative structure, to which this autocephaly will be granted. But the creation of such a structure without knowledge and in parallel with the already existing canonical hierarchy and canonical primate, whose legitimacy was undoubtedly recognized by all, including the Ecumenical Throne, would mean only one thing – the creation of a parasynagogue, a separate "Church". This is no longer just a canonical division connected with the resolution of disciplinary issues; it is a direct rejection of the faith of the Church and the trampling of the Creed, which entails on renegades the anathema of the Holy Fathers of the First and Second Ecumenical Councils.

That is why, personally for the author of these words, talking about the "legitimacy" and "canonicity" of any autocephaly announced before the solution of the aforesaid problem is just a diabolical flattery wrapping the heretical ungodly anti-Christian trampling of the foundations of Orthodoxy – the Creed.

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