Auf der Seite "Parlons de l'Orthodoxie" wurde von "Marie Genko" die englischsprachige Übersetzung eines auf "Pravoslavie.ru" in Russisch geführten Gesprächs wiedergegeben, das erhellend ist:
"Born of Schism
On the historical circumstances of the emergence of the “Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Canada”
Sergei Geruk, Bishop Job (Smakouz)
The
Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew delegated Archbishop Daniel and
Bishop Hilarion to Ukraine, “for the healing of the schism”, and to
provide a tomos for a “Single Orthodox Church of Ukraine” which is as
yet not recognized by anyone. Both of these hierarchs represent two
formerly schismatic Ukrainian groups in the US and Canada, which were
[summarily] received under the omorphorion of the Patriarchate of
Constantinople in 1990, and 1995.
On the subject of the
historical circumstances of the Ukrainian churches born from schism
across the ocean, we spoke with Bishop Job (Smakouz), who for 13 years
bore the responsibility of Administrator of the Patriarchal parishes of
the Russian Orthodox Church in Canada, and temporarily administered the
Patriarchal Parishes in the US (2009-2010), and in September of this
year, arrived in Ukraine for further archpastoral service.
Schismatics’ council. October 14, 1921, Kiev Schismatics’ council. October 14, 1921, Kiev
Your
Eminence, as history shows, Orthodox immigrants [to North
America.—Trans.] from the Western Russian lands—now part of
Ukraine—remained under the omorphorion of the Russian Orthodox Church.
This diocese, which arose due to the labors of monks from Valaam
Monastery, had its center in San-Francisco since 1872. In 1905, this
center was moved to the new Saint Nicholas Cathedral in New York City,
by Archbishop Tikhon (Belavin)—the future Saint and Patriarch of all
Rus’. Where did the “Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Canada” come from?
Indeed,
since 1907, the only Orthodox diocese of the American continent was
called the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic[1] Church in North America,
under the jurisdiction of ecclesiastical rule of the Russian Church. It
covered the entire territory of the United States and Canada, and had
about one hundred parishes and tens of thousands of believers.
Regrettably,
after the 1917 coup in Petrograd[2], and the brief emergence of the
Ukrainian People’s Republic, the spirit of nationalism and revolutionary
radicalism gradually began to penetrate into the environment of
Orthodox Ukrainians in Canada.
In August of 1918, a conference
of Orthodox Ukrainians in the Canadian provinces of Manitoba,
Saskatchewan, and Alberta was held, the majority of whom had been forced
to visit Uniate parishes. From this, the Ukrainian Orthodox Brotherhood
was created for the sake of the organization [creation] of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Canada.
—How did it act?
—This
brotherhood, understanding that a Church cannot exist without a Bishop,
turned to a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church Alexander
(Nemolovsky)[3], born in Volhynia, with a petition to become the head of
the “Ukrainian Greek-Orthodox Church in Canada” (as they decided to
name their church organization). Bishop Alexander first agreed to help
with the organization of the church life of these Orthodox Ukrainians,
and preside over the proposed council, but then, thanks to the
staunchness of the administrator and leader of the Canadian mission, the
rector of the Holy Trinity Church in Winnipeg, Archimandrite Adam
(Filipovsky), a native of Galicia, a “strict Rusin[4]”
[Carpatho-Russian], and a stalwart champion of the unity of the Russian
Orthodox Church and Carpathian Rus’ with the entire Russian nation,[5]
refused.
Regardless of all the slander against him, and the lack
of support of his own bishop, Father Adam, a firm supporter of the
unity of “Canadian Rus” with Great Rus’[6], managed to succeed in that
Bishop Alexander did not attend the 1918 congress of Ukrainian
separatists, and did not support them.. Father Adam referred to
nationalism, and the violation of church canons and oaths in the
ecclesiastical life of Galicia, and Canadian Galicians, as “the
Austro-Galician Swamp”.
—But did such a council take place?
Without
the blessing of a bishop, it was not a [true] council, but rather a
self-organized gathering, which took place on December 28, 1918. Since
there was not a single hierarch in it, there were no decisions made on
the canonical education of the ecclesiastical life of Ukrainians. But
decisions were adopted on organizing a spiritual seminary in the city of
Saskatoon. And soon, the second “council”, took place, on November 27,
1919, at which the Antiochian [Syrian-Lebanese] Metropolitan Germanos[7]
(Shehadi) was present, illegally taking under his care the Ukrainian
parishes in Canada, as he had done in the United States earlier.
The
next gathering was when the so-called “Council of the Ukrainian Greek
Orthodox Church of Canada” (UGOCC) on July 16-17 of 1924, as well as
another gathering of Ukrainians in the United States, which decided to
invite Ivan Teodorovich[8] to lead their church, and he accepted.
According
to the information of the “self-sanctifiers”[9] themselves, their
temporary head, Metropolitan Germanos who lead the Antiochian Orthodox
Church[10], transferred his rights to the self-sanctifier Ivan
Teodorovich. What right he had to lead them, and subsequently transfer
them to the non-canonical fugitive “theater artist” in hierarchal
vestments is uncertain.
—How was this “church” represented in numbers?
—Self
sanctifier[МS1] Teodorovich visited Canadian parishes only in the
winter, and in the summer, he was replaced by the head of the Consistory
Semyon Savchuk. According to the dubious data of the Ukrainians
themselves, by the end of 1928, the non-canonical Ukrainian Greek
Orthodox Church of Canada had 64 thousand members, united 152 parishes,
in which twenty-one “Milord[11] Fathers” served in the Ukrainian
language. In 1940, there were already 189 parishes. Besides a small
number of former Uniates, they consisted of “sincere[12]” Bukovinians
and Volhynians from a new wave of emigration from Poland in the 1930s.
In Canada, however, after some time, protests began against the
non-canonical “ordination” of the Kievan Self-Sanctifier Teodorovich.
Met. Hilarion (Ohienko) Met. Hilarion (Ohienko) —Did the situation change after the Second World War?
—In
1951, the Canadian schismatic-autocephalites invited the former
metropolitan of the Polish Orthodox Church Hilarion (Ohienko,
1882-1972), who fled with the retreating fascists[13] to the West. He
was the “First Hierarch” of the so-called Ukrainian Orthodox Church in
Canada from 1951 to 1972, with the title of “Metropolitan of Winnipeg”.
According to the memoirs of Metropolitan Evlogii (Georgievsky), “Though
Orthodox by religious confession, Ohienko believed, however, that it is
possible to commune with the Uniates.”
Thanks to the labors of
Hilarion (Ohienko)—a historian of Ukrainian nationalist bent, political
actor, philologist, and translator of the Bible into Ukrainian—the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada reached its apogee.
He was
ordained by the Metropolitan of Warsaw and All Poland Dionizy
(Waledyński) to the dignity of Bishop of Kholm during the years of the
Second World War—in 1940; but this was not for the German occupied
Ukraine, but rather for the so called “General Government”, which was
then a part of Poland under the control of the Third Reich.
—Was Metropolitan Hilarion (Ohienko) a canonical hierarch before coming to Canada?
Hilarion
could be recognized as a quite canonical hierarch, if not for a number
of circumstances. Of note, that in 1944, he was in Warsaw together with
the autocephalites of Sikorsky; having headed the Canadian Ukrainian
“church”, Hilarion, like his predecessor Mstislav (Skrypnyk), was
obliged to recognize the same self-sanctifying principles of the
“church’s” creation based on the “canons” of 1921. No reordination of
it’s graceless “priests” happened this time either.[14]
Some
say, however, that Hilarion disguised the reordination of the
self-sanctifiers in the guise of awarding them with the elevation to the
dignity of “Archpriest”: i.e. they knelt before the throne, he recited
the prayers for laying of hands (ordination to priesthood)[15],
proclaimed axios, and presented some form of award.[16] But can such a
thing be considered a grace-filled action?
As we see, there is
every reason to consider the American and Canadian Ukrainian “Churches”
to be equally effected by the metastases of self-sanctification, and
therefore, without grace.
—And yet they were still received by the Patriarchate of Constantinople?
On
April 1, 1990, the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church of Canada was
accepted into the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.. Having
lost its schismatic independence, it took on a canonical status of a
somewhat dubious character. It is difficult to speak of [them
possessing] the fullness of grace, since they did not bring forth
repentance for the sin of schism.
2. Consecration of Pascha
breads in St. Andrew’s UOC Cathedral in Canada. A portrait of Petliura
hangs in the church hall. 2. Consecration of Pascha breads in St.
Andrew’s UOC Cathedral in Canada. A portrait of Petliura hangs in the
church hall.
—Then the attention turned to the U.S. Ukrainians?
—Four
years and eleven months later, on March 12, 1995, the Patriarchate of
Constantinople accepted another North American group—the “Ukrainian
Orthodox Church of the USA”, whose hierarchy was previously considered
schismatic within the Orthodox world.
In 1996, parishes of the
Ukrainian diaspora of Western Europe and other continents were joined
in. And so, two non-canonical Ukrainian émigré groups were recruited
[and summarily legitimized—Trans.] by Constantinople. We’ve come full
circle as we see today, with the case of the “tomos of autocephaly”
coming up to Kiev, and all relations with Constantinople have been
suspended.
The Patriarchate of Constantinople, hastily receiving
into it’s fold the former schismatics, did not require them to sign an
Act, in which they unequivocally condemned the self-sanctifying
“autocephaly” of Vasyl (Lypkivsky) in 1921, or that of Polycarp
(Sikorskyi) in 1942, as well as all the contemporary schisms in Ukraine,
with an indication that in Ukraine, they will recognize only the one
canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
100th anniversary of
the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the USA. Image from uocofusa.org. 100th
anniversary of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the USA. Image from
uocofusa.org.
Today we can see what this results in for the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and for all of world Orthodoxy.
—Your Eminence, what was the reaction of the Local Churches to those actions by Constantinople?
—Much
time has passed… It’s not so easy to quickly recall those events. From
the Orthodox Churches, at first, there was no reaction. They considered
these acts of the Phanar to be an internal affair of Constantinople, and
also of the Russian Church. I don’t know how the Patriarch of
Constantinople informed the Primates of the Local Churches about these
assemblies of his.
It seems that we learned about these events
after some time, from news reports of North American Ukrainians. Later
in Canada, a small chronology of these events was made known. Our Church
entered into correspondence with the Phanar, trying to clarify all the
circumstances and details of this foggy matter.
It is very
similar to how a child vexes his parents and then runs crying to his
grandmother so that she will feel sorry for him and shield him from all
the consequences of his misconduct and naughtiness.
This
culminated in the fact that the Russian Orthodox Church did not
officially join into eucharistic communion with the formerly Ukrainian
Church schismatic structures that became a part of the Patriarchate of
Constantinople.
Soon followed the worst Estonian Crisis, when
the Constantinople synod created with impunity its own parallel
structures on the canonical territory of the Russian Church in violation
of the canons. Then followed a cessation of Eucharistic communion with
the Phanarites, with the aspiration of our hierarchy to heal not only
our church but the entire universal (ecumenical) Orthodox Church, as the
suffering of one member effects the condition of the entire body.[17]
Further
in 1995, the Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew gave in writing a
promise that the adopted communities would not “cooperate or have any
contact with any other Ukrainian schismatic groups.” As we see today,
this promise was a lie.
Fake Patriarch Philaret’s reception
of a delegation of the UOC of Canada, headed by Metropolitan Yuri
(Kalischuk) in February 2015. Apparently, plans for receiving the
long-awaited tomos were already born then. Fake Patriarch Philaret’s
reception of a delegation of the UOC of Canada, headed by Metropolitan
Yuri (Kalischuk) in February 2015. Apparently, plans for receiving the
long-awaited tomos were already born then.
—Your Eminence, the
self-declared Ukrainian “orthodox churches” of the “Kiev Patriarchate”
and the “Ukrainian Autocephalic Orthodox Church” [in Ukraine—Trans.] are
supported exclusively by political, and often radical forces. What
about in Canada?
In the life and actions of the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church of Canada, a major role is played not by the bishops,
but by a consistory, nearly half of which is comprised of laity, as well
as secular nationalist organizations such as the “Ukrainian Canadian
Union[18]” and the “Ukrainian Canadian Congress”,[19] upon whom the
“bishops” and “parishes” are largely financially dependent.
It’s
true that with the passing away of the old emigration, parishioners of
the Ukrainian churches in the Americas are becoming more
English-speaking and apolitical towards affairs in Ukraine. Their
children, especially those who are in mixed marriages, who consider
themselves one hundred percent Canadian and speak only English, are far
from Ukraine, and they know almost nothing of the church life therein.
True, they may know a few Ukrainian words relating mainly to the old
Ukrainian cuisine and holidays (congratulatory greetings on “Ukrainian
Christmas and Pascha”).
Unfortunately in Canada, Ukraine is most
often remembered in connection with various political scandals, fights
in parliament, reelections, corruption, Chernobyl; resurgent interest in
Ukraine was caused by the previous Maidan revolution [2014].
—And
how should one regard today the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada and
the USA, since they are formally considered canonical?
—As we
see, they received a strange kind of canonicity: “canonicity obtained in
an uncanonical way”: Canonicity without love, canonicity without truth,
and canonicity carrying with it the legalization of the sin of schism
without repentance! It’s pandering to schism! And the anathematized
father of the main schism in Ukraine is very much hoping for the same
condoning and pandering to these precedents, which will bring many
problems to the Greek Patriarchate in many corners of the world.
Many
of them are already experiencing these problems planted by the
Patriarchate of Constantinople—not only Greeks, but all the Orthodox
people of North America… And, well, we must remember that the prodigal
son from the Gospel parable returned to his natural father, and not to
some “kindly” good neighbor trying to appropriate what belongs to
someone else. This is a kind of analogy to the robbery of children under
a “children’s rights” system from the home of the Church, the family of
Christ.
These church [schismatic] structures should be regarded
as the synod of our Church resolved to regard them in its last
emergency session. In the same way as we regarded these structures
before. Now in this same way, this regard extends over the entire
Constantinople Patriarchate. And not our church, but rather the
politicking Phanarites is to blame for this.
—Your Eminence,
what should an Orthodox believer of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
(Moscow Patriarchate) do if he is abroad and there won’t be any churches
other than those of the Phanar?
These days, the prayerful
commemoration of the Primate [of Constantinople] and [his]
Hierarchs—guilty of anti-canonical actions—the concelebration of
hierarchs and participation in common events was suspended. But in cases
of extreme necessity[20], the laity and simple clergy—I think—can
receive communion[21] and pray in the Ukrainian churches of Canada and
the USA[22] during trips, pilgrimages, or family events (there are mixed
families). But in such cases, it is best to take the blessing of your
bishop or spiritual father. And remain faithful to our Mother Church,
which spiritually gave birth to us in the mysteries, with maternal care
for our spiritual growth! And also to pray for those who are against us
to be brought to reason—those who are against the love of Christ, who
think they were doing the right thing by forcefully capturing our
churches in the early 1990s.
Our church calls upon us to do this! But to agree with schism, with lawlessness, means to become partners in the sin and crime.
From all these dangers, may the Lord save us by His grace!
Bishop
Job (Smakouz) Bishop Job (Smakouz) —But still, Your Eminence, in your
opinion--how should the faithful of the canonical Orthodox Church of
Ukraine relate to what is happening?
—I will only recall the words spoken by our Primate—His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry
“If
a man is bound hand and foot by sins, then no such tomos can help him.
Because such a person is saved through repentance, through a personal
podvig, and no one can do this for him.”
We should all do as our
First Hierarch urges—focus on personal salvation, to pray and keep the
purity of faith. This is our sacred task. Without condemning anyone, we
must follow the path that leads a person directly to God. His Beatitude
also said:
“The Holy Orthodox Church together with its people
lived through the stormy years of wars and hardships, persecution and
starvation. Orthodox Ukrainians witnessed the firmness of the Christian
spirit. The example of our countrymen, our predecessors, who endured
these trials with dignity inspires us to be courageous at this very
hour.”
And there is nothing more to add.
Sergei Geruk
spoke with Bishop Job (Smakouz)
Translation by Matfey Shaheen
Pravoslavie.ru"
vor 1 Jahr
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