UOC believers to hand their "Tomos" to Phanar head during prayer in Kyiv

Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. Photo: dialogi.online

At a prayer action in Kyiv on August 21, believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are going to hand their "Tomos" to Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. The text of the document was published on Friday, August 20, on the Miriane tg-channel.

In this document, believers described in detail what the Tomos, granted by the head of Phanar to the schismatics, actually brought to the Orthodox of Ukraine, and called on Patriarch Bartholomew to admonish and repent “for the encroachment on the leadership in the Church, which belongs solely to our Lord Jesus Christ, for the desire to unite with the Catholics, for the recognition of Ukrainian schismatics, for the seizure of our churches, for the beating of our believers, for the enmity and hatred that you brought to our land!"

The UOJ provides the full text of the document.

“Tomos of the Laity of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople

You have approached the mountains of Kyiv, where the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called preached the Logos, fulfilling the commandment of the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). In fulfillment of this commandment, the Holy Prince Vladimir of Kyiv baptized Rus 1033 years ago. In fulfillment of this commandment, your predecessor, Patriarch Nicholas II Chrysovergis (10th century), sent a bishop and presbyters to our country to baptize and enlighten the people.

The Patriarchate of Constantinople brought the Orthodox faith to Rus. The Thessalonian brothers, Cyril and Methodius Equal-to-the-Apostles, gave the Slavic peoples the Gospel in their native language. The Greek metropolitans of Kyiv carried out their apostolic labors and planted true worship of God in our country. The Holy Mount Athos brought up the ancestor of Russian monasticism, the Monk Anthony of the Caves, from whom all monasteries in modern Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and other countries originated. The holy relics of another predecessor of yours, Patriarch Athanasios III Patellarios (17th century), the Wonderworker of Lubensk, who is known to us as Athanasios the “Sitting”, rest in Kharkiv. There are innumerable spiritual gifts that our country received from Constantinople, for which our people will forever be grateful to the Greek people.

However, what did you personally bring to our country, to Ukraine? You recognized the schismatics, excommunicated from the Church, and accepted them without their repentance! You concelebrated the Divine Liturgy with the persons without holy dignity! You gave the schismatics a tomos on flawed autocephaly, which the Orthodox people of Ukraine did not request of you! You brought enmity, hatred and violence to our country! In your name, cruel militants seize churches, drive families of priests out of church houses, beat believers and commit other iniquities! Ukraine is plunged into tear- and bloodshed from what you brought to our country!

But the worst of all is that you are doing all this within the framework of the approval of a new heresy which the Patriarchate of Constantinople is spreading today. This is the heresy of Constantinople papism. You declared yourself as the earthly head of the Church, as the “first without equal,” as a primate with special and exclusive powers. Moreover, you are leading all your followers to union with the Catholics, as you have repeatedly stated. Many of your predecessors fought against the heresy of papism when Rome was infected with it. Patriarch Michael I Cerularius (XI century) excommunicated the Roman legates and, in their person, all those who’d contracted this heresy. The Monk Mark of Ephesus (XV century) taught us not to make any compromises and not to agree with the heresy of papism. A lot of saints and monks, both Greek and Slavic, testified with their lives and their preaching to the need of preserving the purity of the Orthodox faith, for there can be no salvation of the soul without this. 

Therefore, since the pious and God-saved land of Ukraine is strengthened in Orthodoxy and taught to remain faithful to the Gospel, we reject your claim to be the earthly head of the Church and confess instead that only “Christ is the head of the Church, his body, of which He is the Savior” (Eph. 5:23). We reject the possibility of unity with Rome without the repentance of Catholics in all their heretical delusions.

You "abolished" the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, we remain faithful to Her! You rejected His Beatitude Onuphry, we recognize him as our Primate and Archpastor! Due to your actions, 144 temples have been forcibly seized in our country, but we are building new ones next to them! We testify before the entire world that despite your decisions, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and Her Primate, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry, are carrying out their saving mission on our land.

We call you to repentance for the encroachment on the leadership in the Church, which belongs solely to our Lord Jesus Christ, for the desire to unite with the Catholics, for the recognition of Ukrainian schismatics, for the seizure of our churches, for the beating of our believers, for the enmity and hatred that you brought to our land!

But in the event that you do public penance for all the above, we, the believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, agree to continue to honor you as the Primate of the Orthodox Church of Constantinople, as the first in honor among equal primates, as the heir to the saints, who shone forth on the Throne of Constantinople, and as God's bishop.

In view of this, the present Tomos is issued for you to permanent value, written and handed to you in the God-saved city of Kyiv for your admonition and repentance.

August 21st, 2021.

Laity of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Recall that on August 21, 2021, UOC believers gather for a prayer standing at the Verkhovna Rada, where a meeting of the head of Phanar with spokesman Dmitry Razumkov is scheduled. The purpose of the prayer action of the UOC is to testify to their faith and to show Patriarch Bartholomew that his vision of the church situation in Ukraine has nothing to do with reality.

The UOJ broadcasts the event online.

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