UOC Primate: The Church cooperates with the state but does not serve it

Metropolitan Onuphry. Photo: UOC Press Service

On June 1, 2025, during the Divine Liturgy at the Church of St. Agapitus in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, Metropolitan Onuphry delivered a sermon dedicated to the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council held in Nicaea. In his address, the Primate highlighted the essential need for the Church to maintain independence from political influence and to be guided by the principle of conciliarity.

Metropolitan Onuphry reminded the faithful that the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD not only responded to the theological challenges of its time but also laid the foundations for ecclesial order based on “joint prayerful discernment of the truth in the Holy Spirit.”

A central focus of the sermon was the relationship between the Church and the state. The Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church noted that although Emperor Constantine the Great facilitated the convocation of the Council, the “close intertwining of Church and state” contained inherent dangers that later manifested in history.

“While cooperating with the state, the Church must not lose her prophetic freedom or her calling to be the light of the world,” Metropolitan Onuphry emphasized, quoting Christ: “My Kingdom is not of this world.”

He pointed to constructive areas of Church–state cooperation: works of mercy and charity, the preservation of historical heritage, and support for the institution of the family. At the same time, he warned against any attempts to resolve “theological or canonical matters by political means.”

“Cooperation with the state must not turn into state interference in the internal life of the Church,” the Primate stated.

The sermon also stressed that the Church “lives and grows through conciliarity, through heeding the Holy Spirit in the heart of the Church – not through external authority or political support.”

Metropolitan Onuphry called on the faithful to preserve “the purity of the Orthodox faith and Orthodox morality,” warning that without this, “a person may think he is walking toward the Kingdom of God, when in fact he is going in another direction.”

It will be reminded that Metropolitan Onuphry also issued a message marking the anniversary of the Council in Feofania.

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