The
“Ubiquitous Ukrainian Problem”
In a letter dated May 18, 2001, to
the Orthodox News Service expressing disdain
for the SCOBA pastoral message, L. Lucic provides an in depth
analysis of the political maneuverings of the “canonical” bishops of SCOBA.
We are providing the most pertinent
highlights and the entire section dealing with the “ubiquitous Ukrainian
problem”. It is fascinating reading.
“One
can then well understand the current outrage of our Ukrainian brothers and
sisters in America who are aghast at once again being 'sold out to the Greeks'
by their own bishops in a secret conspiracy whose ramifications include a clear
prohibition of their joining under the omophorion of a truly free Ukrainian
Orthodox Church in their homeland.”
“I'm
sorry, your Graces, but both your words and actions today and yesterday leave
me no option but to say that you lack any credibility. The circumstances of
your meetings, today as yesterday, and the pastoral messages that you issue,
conceal only thinly-veiled outlines of crude political manoevering and agendas
far removed from the Gospel of Christ.”
“The
real truth is that the motives which underlie your actions together--as opposed
to some of the evangelical oration of your pastoral--are basely political.”
“Firstly,
Constantinople, no longer having any flock of her own in the true patriarchal
territory, is intent upon creating one almost anywhere by any means--largely
the artful interpretation of canons speaking of the patristic diaspora.”
“.......ever
since (Moscow Patriarchate) rather mysteriously granted status of autocephaly (to the OCA while) still in the depths of the 'cold war'
period, the OCA has been a slavish follower and suppliant of the Moscow
Patriarchate and her satellite Churches.”
“Invariably
the OCA and its clergy mouth the Russian Patriarchal line and take its position
in any and all controversies with Constantinople and its American Archdiocese.”
“And then there's the ubiquitous
'Ukrainian problem', proving once again that our chief shepherds in the Old
World learn no lessons from the history they're so fond of glorifying. The
rancorous and ever increasing multiplication of jurisdictions for
ethno-political goals which characterized the post-war scene in the Ukrainian
'diaspora' of the 'free world' have now been imported back to the homeland with
a vengeance. And here again, Moscow is waging a rearguard action to hang on to
another part of her former spiritual empire, studiously unaware that Ukraine is
now a sovereign independent nation with an Orthodox patrimony older than and
precedent to her own and therefore, according to any real logic and honest
canonicity, eminently worthy of her own autocephalous local church. But by
artful manipulation of the canons and reliance on Russian cultural and
political organizations, she continues to extrude her presence into the former
'satellite' countries with the obvious connivance of the new, 'democratic'
Russian regime--while all the time trumpeting the rights of Russian minorities
there to canonical suzerainty in the newly-independent states! The crass
politicization of it all must make the new masters of the Kremlin smile as
widely as their socialist predecessors. And all the while, Constantinople
writhes as she is pointed out as historically the honest broker who in true
byzantine style sold off the ancient Kievan Metropolitanate to the newly
emerged Russian power to the north for a mess of pottage. As though making
amends-- with one eye open, of course, to her own primatial goal-- she
intervenes with no thought of self-interest to extend her very canonical
omophorion over the 'uncanonical' Ukrainian groups in the West, to supposedly
deliver them from their self-imposed exile from their other Orthodox brothers
and sisters. And all of this is smoothly accomplished in true byzantine
cloak-and-dagger style with only the vaguest and sketchiest details revealed to
anyone, including the 'diaspora' Ukrainians. One can then well understand the
current outrage of our Ukrainian brothers and sisters in America who are aghast
at once again being 'sold out to the Greeks' by their own bishops in a secret
conspiracy whose ramifications include a clear prohibition of their joining
under the omophorion of a truly free Ukrainian Orthodox Church in their
homeland. And this to generations of Ukrainian Orthodox in this country who
have been consciously programmed to believe that the cultural and political
goals of a free Ukraine are of the very raison d'etre of the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church in America and are the 'sobornopravna' duty of the laity to fulfill
together with their bishops. Clearly those folk will be in no mood for quite
some time to enter into any united American Orthodox Church under the tutelage
of Constantinople!”
For the full text of L. Lucic letter
Click http:// www.orthodoxnews.com