TOMOS AS THE ACT OF SPIRITUAL INDEPENDENCE OF UKRAINE

The firm decision of the Ecumenical Patriarch to grant the Tomos of Autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church caused a shock not only in the ROC (Russian Orthodox Church), but also in the Kremlin. As a result, the ROC decided to suspend the remembrance of His All Holiness Bartholomew I in prayers, thus opposing the entire Orthodox world, and embarked on the path of schism.

 Russia, meanwhile, has some reasons to worry about this. Firstly, the ROC and the Russian Federation in one moment might lose their imperialism and bury the myth of “Moscow as the Third Rome”. Secondly, the ROC will lose the third part of its possession without the UOC (Ukrainian Orthodox Church). And Patriarch Kirill won’t be no longer a patriarch of All Rus’, but only a patriarch of Moscow. And this fact painfully wounds vanity of the patriarch and of the Kremlin leader.

Today the historically proved facts that are very inconvenient for the ROC are brought into light from the shadow of past Moscow manipulations.

Firstly, Ukraine is the territory of the Ecumenical Patriarch, because Christianity came to it from Constantinople, not from Moscow, which did not exist at that time.

 Secondly, the transfer of the ancient Kyiv Metropolis to the Moscow Patriarchate in 1686 was temporary and uncanonical.

Thirdly, the Moscow Patriarchate does not have Tomos from the Ecumenical Patriarch, so it can be called self-styled in terms of autocephaly, because the election in Moscow of Metropolitan Jonah in 1448 happened without the permission of the Ecumenical Patriarch.

Fourthly, Tomos, or the autocephaly decree to the local church, is granted only by the Ecumenical Patriarch and no one else.

Next, Moscow received Orthodoxy from Kyiv and actually it is just a disobedient and ambitious “daughter” of the Kyiv Metropolis.

 Lastly, the whole world has finally understood that the ROC is a paper tiger, who serves to the Kremlin and ignore the interest of the Orthodox people.

So it turns out that the independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is the greatest threat to the Russian imperialism. This is a blow to the Kremlin, which conducts an undeclared hybrid war against Ukraine. No wonder they say that Putin is going to change Kirill (Gundyaev) with Tikhon (Shevkunov), because Kirill failed his task in negotiations with the Ecumenical Patriarch in Istanbul.

Tomos for Ukraine is the Act of Spiritual Independence, which will mark the unification of all Orthodox Ukraine in the Single Local Church, which will create a spiritual core so necessary for Ukrainians.

Author: Oleg Rudenko