I have realised that the decision of the Church of Cyprus on the Ukrainian Issue has displeased or disappointed several Ukrainian brothers who would expect a clear, de jure, recognition of the Autocephalous Church of Ukraine by the Holy Synod of Cyprus. This negative treatment of the decision is favored by the persistent Russian propaganda, which presents the fact from its own point of view, noting that it did not perceive the...
blatant accusation of the Church of Cyprus for what the Russian Church has done and continues to do against unity and stability of the Orthodox Church.
In fact, this propaganda has paid special attention to the pro-Russian views of Metropolitan of Kykkos, while the testimonies of the Bishop of Karpasia Christoforos have almost been ignored. Christoforos clearly accuses Moscow of ecclesiological diversion and heresy because of the refusal of the Institution of “Protos”.
The Ukrainian brothers should not be so easily disappointed as they have a bitter experience of Russian propaganda and how it works, systematically distorting the truth. But such a “victory” is temporary and involves impressions and not the essence of events.
Ecclesiastical things are not black and white and always require time and patience. It is a huge mistake for Ukrainian brothers to reproduce this pessimism themselves, since it pours water into the Russian policy mill and the Moscovites' attempt to undermine the Autocephalous Church of Ukraine.
What they ought to do in Ukraine - and they owe it to their Nation's History and Freedom - is to work with patience, perseverance and prayer for the consolidation of the Autocephalous Church of Ukraine. What they need to know is that the river does not turn back. Since the Tomos was published and given, the issue has been ecclesiologically and theologically finished. There is already the Autocephalous Church of Ukraine, with the sole recognition of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which has the exclusive right to do so. The “recognitions” of the other Orthodox Churches have no constitutive, but customary, character for the canonical existence of the Autocephalous Church.
Recognition in practice is eucharistic communion. And to this end, His Beatitude Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine Epiphanius will work with the wisdom and intelligence that he has.
