Polish Primate to UOC forum participants: Pan-Orthodox dialogue is needed
The Polish Orthodox Church emphasized that the so-called "Ukrainian schism" went beyond the borders of Ukraine and affected the entire world Orthodoxy.
To heal the division in world Orthodoxy, a pan-Orthodox dialogue is needed, and the Polish Orthodox Church is doing its best to promote it. This is stated in the greeting address of the Metropolitan Sawa of Warsaw and All Poland to the organizers and participants of the International Conference "Catholicity of the Church: Theological, Canonical and Historical Dimensions".
The speech of the Primate of the Polish Orthodox Church at the forum of the UOC in Kyiv was read by the rector of the Christian Theological Academy in Warsaw (Poland), Archbishop Georgy (Pankovsky) of Wroclaw and Szczecin.
“The topic of the conference is very important and relevant today, given the crisis that has taken place in world Orthodoxy,” Metropolitan Sawa pointed out in his address. “The fact of the appearance of the so-called ‘Orthodox Church of Ukraine’, instead of healing religious sentiments in Ukraine, aggravated and complicated them. Instead of the unity of society, a division took place that went beyond the framework of the so-called "Ukrainian schism" and affected the entire world Orthodoxy. Therefore, we need to constantly remind one that the main feature of the Catholicity of the Holy Orthodox Church is its unity, it lives by faithfulness to the dogmatic teaching of the Holy Church and there is no room in it for an ecclesiological compromise."
According to the Primate of the Polish Church, “Satan rejoices the lack of Eucharistic communion and we tempt the world around us, serving as a bad example for the heterodox and weak believers”.
For this, he stressed, it will be necessary to give an answer at the Last Judgement, and "therefore, we need a pan-Orthodox dialogue".
The Polish Orthodox Church is doing its best to facilitate this, and the current forum in Kyiv just "serves to comprehend our contemporary responsibility", said Metropolitan Sawa.
In conclusion, he expressed support for the Primate and the entire fullness of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, wishing His Beatitude Onuphry "God's unfailing help in carrying out his responsible service as the helmsman of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian people".
As reported, at the conference in Kyiv, a Serbian hierarch read out the greeting of Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia, who stressed that the Serbian Church recognizes in Ukraine only the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the omophorion of His Beatitude Onuphry.
