Canonical hardness of hearts: The Ukrainian Crisis of Orthodoxy
The author claims that the current ecclesiastical crisis in Ukraine is due to
an ecclesiological derivation initiated in the nineteenth century, namely the
principle of autocephaly granted on political national criteria. These
autocephalies were politically torn down by the ecumenical Patriarchate without
a genuine ecclesiological debate. The geopolitical circumstances of the
twentieth century frozen de facto any discussion, and the attempt to break the
deadlock through a Pan-Orthodox synod was sabotaged by the largest church among
the autocephalous Orthodox Churches, later involving three others. Its
intervention in the 30 years old schisms within the Orthodox communities of
Ukraine, with a minimal consultation and against Moscow Patriarchate’s point of
view, marked a turning point in the post-imperial status quo of Orthodoxy. The
conclusion is that a healing of the schism declared by the Moscow Patriarchate
cannot be operated on the phyletic ecclesiological basis of the twentieth
century, and that a universal ecumenical redefinition of Orthodoxy is required,
starting from the ecclesiological formulas of the pre-modern centuries and
coming towards unpredictable social transformations worldwide. The author
evokes the possibility of exceeding the ecclesiology of the national
autocephalous churches.
PETRE GURAN
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