A few words about the statement of "the Council of Bishops of the UOC KP" or Mantras of canonicity
"The Council of Bishops of the UOC KP" is one more excuse to declare to the whole world about itself. However, the world is unlikely to listen to such statements, especially the Orthodox world, which made it clear that the Kyiv Patriarchate is a schismatic group. One can argue about this conclusion, but it is so.
This verdict does not belong only to some particular Patriarch or the bishop, but to the entirety of the Ecumenical Orthodoxy. How can we prove it? It is very easy. We all remember the seminary catechism, which clearly defines the attributes of the Church - it is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic.
It is interesting if there is at least one feature that could be attributed to the Kyiv Patriarchate, especially after the statement of "the Council of Bishops of the UOC KP" made on 13 May, 2016?
The Church is the One because Christ founded only one Church, which leads to salvation. According to the statement of "the Council of Bishops of the UOC KP" the Church should lead people anywhere – to independence, autocephaly and the like, but not to salvation, this word is missing in the statement.
The Church is called Holy, because it is consecrated by its Head – Christ the Savior. However, members of the Church should make a lifetime effort to strive for holiness. And its "holiness" the Kyiv Patriarchate very well demonstrated to the world by the so-called "voluntary transition of parishes, with the help of "holy" "Right sector ".
Collegiality, i.e. catholicity is the universality of the Church worldwide, which bring to its bosom all people who want to come to the Savior, despite their national identity. Here there is neither Greek nor Jew, Ukrainian nor Belarusian, Canadian nor Italian, but all and in all is Christ. Is there such a property of the project under the name KP? Hard to say, especially when the organization shows its aggressiveness to the Christian Ukraine, with the help of nationalist groups.
The last feature is being apostolic. This is a continuous apostolic succession. The legal disciples of the apostles are bishops. But only those who zealously keep the apostolic doctrine and Christian values, remaining the image of the Savior. It is unlikely that the Savior called to kill each other, went to ask for arms, called atheists a separate part of a united country. In this regard it is worth mentioning that the Kharkov Council of 1992, which is called the "so-called" in the statement of the Kiev Patriarchate, imposed anathema on Mr. Denisenko and removed the status of bishop.
As a matter of fact, the decision of this Council is recognized, without exaggeration, by all the Local Orthodox Churches, which are in a prayerful and Eucharistic communion with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which the KP does not consider as the Church in the above statement. If the Kyiv Patriarchate further develops the assertion that the UOC is not the Church, and even add a rule that one who prays with anathema, should also be excommunicated, hardly will anyone be surprised that after a certain while the UOC-KP makes a statement that it is the only canonical Church worldwide.
Representatives of the Kiev PARTYarchate should remember catechism lessons and from time to time check the life of the organization in accordance with the tenets given by the Teachers and Fathers of the Church of Christ. Although, why you’d be surprised if people who write a statement to the Christians on behalf of the "Council of Bishops", use the word Christ only twice, the first one – in the greeting. And such "unimportant" words like salvation, Christians and love are used zero times. And we read the statement of "the bishops", who have to be the image of Christ, to their flock and should, above all, lead them to salvation.
Any prayer, appeal, statement, declaration, advice given by the organization, calling itself the Church of Christ, must be Christocentric. That is, the image of the Saviour and his commandments of love must be shown in everything. But this is true if we're talking about the Church, but not about the political project created only for one purpose - to serve as an additional outreach apparatus for the electorate. No wonder that Filaret learned it from his protectors from the KGB for 25 years.
It may be noted that the so-called statement of "the Council of Bishops of the Kyiv Patriarchate" in its content is very similar to a lot of time repeated sacred mantra, who is credited with magical power. It is not quite clear whether the Kyiv Patriarchate should be called schismatics: maybe, they want to quickly transfer their organization to Buddhism or Hinduism. However, that’s hardly the point because the KP has a "Buddha", who shows the way to autocephalous development and improvement. We call this way Filaretoddizm because his loyal followers in their mantra see themselves as the one, canonical and the local church.
In addition, the mantra is constantly changing: from the assumption that Filaretoddizm is canonical to the call to recognize it by the whole Christian world. In this regard, it is difficult to understand whether the Kiev Patriarchate claims to be canonical, or only expresses a desire to become the canonical Church headed by its "spiritual sensei" – Filaret.
Whether the mantra repeated in each paragraph of the so-called statement will reach to the yin and yang, and grant adherents of Filaretoddizma so much desired status of being local and canonical – time will put everything in its place.
But taking it seriously, the statement of the so-called "Council of Bishops" increasingly resembles of a baby crying, who is not given the same toy as the neighbor boy has. And the reason is quite simple - why does he need a boy’s toy if he is actually a girl.
P.S. Do not judge me strictly for abstract conclusion. As the saying goes, as you give, you receive.
