ROC approves procedure for receiving members of Ukrainian schismatic groups
Meeting of the ROC Holy Synod. Photo: patriarchia.ru
The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church has approved a special document defining the procedure for receiving members of Ukrainian schismatic structures who wish to join the ROC.
The document regulates the reconciliation of former members of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP), and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC). Each individual or community is received following a canonical investigation and a decision by the eparchial bishop.
The document also emphasizes that the granting of the Tomos to the OCU in 2018 was a unilateral political act that was not recognized by most Local Orthodox Churches and did not restore apostolic succession, but merely perpetuated the schism.
Under the approved procedure, individuals baptized in these organizations are received through the Sacrament of Baptism. Those originally baptized in the canonical Church who subsequently joined other religious structures are received through the Sacrament of Repentance.
Decisions on receiving priests in their existing rank are made individually, on a case-by-case basis. However, "clergy" who received their "ordination" within the aforementioned structures are admitted exclusively as laypeople. Priests who were defrocked for joining the schism are likewise received as laypeople.
Separate rules apply to monastics. If a person was tonsured in one of the aforementioned organizations, that tonsure is not recognized. After joining the Church, the individual may petition the bishop for monastic tonsure. Only those who received monastic tonsure in the canonical Church before joining another structure are recognized as monks.
Communities joining the ROC come under the omophorion of the local bishop, are required to conduct services in Church Slavonic, and may not demand any special status.
Applicants must submit a written petition, confirm that they have ceased commemorating the leaders of schismatic groups, and, if they previously made public statements attacking the Church, formally renounce those statements.
As the UOJ previously reported, Dumenko claimed that Russian shelling only underscores the OCU's canonical status.
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