“UGCC will expand contacts with the Church of Ancient Constantinople,” UGCC after meeting with Patriarch Bartholomew I

On April 20, 2013, as part of the pilgrimage to holy places in ancient Constantinople, an official meeting took place between the UGCC delegation, headed by His Beatitude Sviatoslav (Shevchuk), UGCC Head, and the Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I in his residency in Istanbul (Turkey).  As was reported earlier, the UGCC Head is accompanied in this pilgrimage by Bishop Borys (Gudziak), Director of UGCC Department of International Relations.

“I think that this visit was very significant and it was done from our initiative.  The Church of ancient Constantinople is the Mother Church of all Christians of the Kyiv tradition who received their faith from the Baptism of St. Equal to the Apostles, Prince Volodymyr,” commented UGCC Primate.  We note that such Churches - inheritors of Volodymyr’s Baptism for whom the Church of Constantinople is the Mother Church are: UOC (MP), UOC-KP, UAOC, and UGCC.  As UGCC Major Archbishop emphasized, the Universal Patriarch is today a significant moral authority, both in the Orthodox, in particular, as well as in the Christian world in general. As a person, free of political and geo-political engagements, he can also be a significant moral authority for Ukrainian Christians who today are dealing with the reality of the split of the only Kyiv Church.

“I assured the Patriarch in our readiness to expand and deepen relations with the Church of ancient Constantinople in various manners; one of them can be the renewal of the activity of the Kyiv Study Group, formed in the 1980s on the North American continent.  It included theologians and scholars of UOC-USA and Canada, who were in union with the Universal Patriarch as well as theologians and scholars from UGCC,” added His Beatitude Sviatoslav.  As is known, it was during the time of the existence of the Kyiv Study group, that it was possible to establish various theological foundations for a renewed dialogue, and possible Communion of UGCC with the Church of ancient Constantinople.   “Of course, within the last 20 years, the religious situation in Ukraine has totally changed and therefore the renewed activity of such a group would enhance, on the one hand, the search for paths towards inter-confessional dialogue and the possibility of  Communion among Churches – the inheritors of Kyiv Christianity in Ukraine with the Church of Constantinople,” summarized  UGCC Head.

At the conclusion of the meeting, His Beatitude Sviatoslav invited Patriarch Bartholomew I to participate in the meeting of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations that will take place within the framework of the celebration of the 1025^th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus-Ukraine.

UGCC Department of Information