In 2018, the Ecumenical Patriarch recognized the OCU (Orthodox Church of Ukraine), creating a parallel body to the canonical UOC (Ukrainian Orthodox Church) under the Moscow Patriarchate that has been there for a millennia. This issue resembles another one in very similar circumstances 100 years earlier in Poland; of which I believe we can look to aid in solving or at least having hope towards the situation occurring today. May Christ have mercy and bless my words to be fruitful, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

A Familiar Scenario

The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Gregory VII declared autocephaly for the Polish Orthodox Church in 1924 on territories that belonged to the Russian Orthodox Church, this was due to the persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church under communism. The Tomos of Autocephaly was granted November 13, 1924. The Russian Orthodox Church did not recognize this autocephaly of the Polish Orthodox Church. Does this sound like a familiar scenario? Just exchange Poland for Ukraine and excluding the reasoning given for the Tomos, it’s identical.

For background, Constantinople granted Moscow canonical territory in 1686. This was under Patriarch Dionysius IV, who officially transferred the Kyiv Metropolitanate under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate making it the MP’s territory. For relatively 238 years, this was not disputed. Part of the debate about this silence is whether the Ottoman Empire pressured the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1686 to grant this or not, while Greece was still under Muslim Turkish occupation; the time needed to include this discussion is not allotted here.

The 1924 Tomos to the Church in Poland condemned and revoked the act of this territorial transfer in 1686 declaring it non-canonical (1). The same way the 2018 Tomos for Ukraine condemns and revokes the act of the 1686 transfer as well (2). This is another parallel to today.

According to the EP, there is an acknowledgement that it is a legally binding Synodal Letter from 1686, but that it was binding only so much as in Moscow preserved the traditional rights and status of Constantinople (3). The EP declares those conditions are not being honored. The MP declares even if they agreed to the EP’s understanding, the Kyiv territory of that time was much smaller than it is today and the territory of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church doesn’t fall under that small territory.

Thus, the MP refuses to recognize the autocephalous status of the OCU, just as it did in 1924 with refusing the autocephaly of the Polish Orthodox Church (4). Turmoil plays a factor in both of these situations now as well, with Russia being under communism and the mass killings of Orthodox Christians, and Ukraine now in war with mass killings of Orthodox Christians tragically in the war on both sides of Russia and Ukraine. Hundreds of thousands of Orthodox Christians are dead, each country points the finger at the other while more soldiers’ bodies pile up.

Again, the means are different; of course. But the outcome parallels. The other difference is the EP recognized other canonical Orthodox Christians in Poland in 1924, while in 2018 the EP recognized schismatic and defrocked bodies in Ukraine such as the UOC-KP (5). Some will point to the 2018 Tomos saying that it lifted all anathemas against these defrocked bishops and bodies within Ukraine. Agreeing would present another parallel but disagreeing as most do, would just get us back to the original premise of the discussing the canonical status of the Tomos.

Both Problems & Hope For Today

It took 24 years from 1924, for the Russian Orthodox Church to recognize the autocephaly of the Polish Orthodox Church in 1948 with granting its own Tomos and rejecting Constantinople’s Tomos. The Polish Orthodox Church followed suit with Moscow, recognizing their autocephaly from Moscow and renouncing the Tomos from the EP.

“The Polish Autonomous Church recognizes the autocephaly of the Polish Church, proclaimed by the tomos of Patriarch Gregory VII of Constantinople of November 13, 1924 (No. 4588), as non-canonical and invalid and asks the blessing of the Mother Russian Church for canonical autocephaly.” (6).

Firstly this gives us proof that the issue, like many messy breaks in communion amongst the first millennium Christian Church, can be solved in time. But secondly, how did this resolve? What problems persisted? And what can we learn from it today? As the future resided with Poland then, I believe it resides with Ukraine now.

The problems in theory should have been over. The Polish Church recognized the Tomos from Moscow, both Moscow and Constantinople fully recognized the Polish Orthodox Church as canonical. End of story right? However soon after this, Patriarch Athenagoras, a Patriarch with accused ties to the CIA released in government documents (7), would issue statements essentially saying that the Russian Church only joined in recognition of what the Ecumenical Patriarch already had declared regarding the Polish Orthodox Church (8).

Despite the minor debates on this, communion was resolved so attention would take a back seat and wane on the subject for the average Orthodox Christian. The EP said they were responsible for the autocephaly, and it’s still their territory. While the MP proclaimed the same thing. The deciding factor here was the Polish Church, who sided with the MP’s autocephaly while maintaining unity with both. Just as I believe Ukraine is the deciding factor today.

So what did the other Orthodox jurisdictions do at this time? The same thing they are doing today. Some completely refused to accept the new autocephalous church created by Constantinople such as Serbia and Bulgaria. Some purposely remained neutral in order to give time for the issue to resolve on its own. Today this remains with all Orthodox jurisdictions outside of the EP supporting the persecuted Ukrainian Orthodox Church under Metropolitan Onuphrey while all Orthodox Churches remaining in communion with the EP despite the disagreement regarding the OCU and additional actions taken in Ukraine.

In 1949, Prof. S. V. Troitsky details this parallel just mentioned: “Despite the fact that the Polish government organized a special trip of Metropolitan Dionizy to the East to convince the other autocephalous Churches to recognize Polish autocephaly, this attempt failed. Some Churches answered evasively, others, for example the Serbian and Bulgarian, categorically refused to recognize the non-canonical autocephaly of the Polish Church, and Patriarch Gregory of Antioch twice wrote to Metropolitan Anthony that such interference, in addition to the request and contrary to the desire and will of the lawful Church authority of the All-Russian Patriarch, is unacceptable” (9).

Political Interference Then & Now

In the 1950 Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Poland Church topic was covered and it intriguingly mentions political interference attempting to influence the Orthodox Church. It reads as follows, “It is now clear that Patriarch Meletius IV of Constantinople, for some political or other purposes, went out to meet these intentions of the Polish government, confirming the autocephaly of the Polish Orthodox Church without the Russian Mother Church, which alone had this right according to the canons.” (10).

This also reveals another parallel, as former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, openly admitted to helping influence the 2018 Church issues in Ukraine. He publicly has bragged about this on podcasts on his X/Twitter account (11). However, just as political purposes failed in 1924, they will fail again today. The reality of attempted political influence into churches is a similar reality for all Christian groups, how those are dealt with, resolved, etc is not always similar or comparable. The irony of Mr. Pompeo is saying he supported religious freedom in Ukraine while funding and supporting groups that actively persecute religious freedom to this moment.

For those unaware, the OCU radicals, with support from President Zelensky and the Ukraine government actively persecute Orthodox Christians of the UOC. They seize hundreds of Churches yearly since even before the war began with over 1500 seized by 2024 (12), those numbers are still climbing. The mainstream media makes people believe no persecution is happening, how? They label Christians as the OCU, the persecutors as Christian. Even conservatives like Ben Shapiro have on Uniates who deny the persecution and push the MSM narrative, including Jason Charon and Matt Fradd (13). And therefore there is no persecution of the OCU, but the UOC? They are just Russian spies, puppets, Putin lapdogs, whatever insult to deflect from this fact they will not hesitate to launch at you. Back to Pompeo and the political influence.

“I was in the middle of it. I was so proud of what happened. I think it has made a difference in the war” says Mike Pompeo on recording by Vovan & Lexus on Rumble as they pretend to be former President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko (14).

He confirms what many have already known; that those in control like Pompeo who was the CIA director, seek to divide the Orthodox Christians in the areas of Russia and Ukraine in order to control and subvert them. Ultimately and quite frankly, their enemy is God and His Church. This has nothing to do with being pro-Russia as the liberals will shout you down, nor with being pro-Ukraine as the conservatives will shout you down. This is about the historical and spiritual reality of the Church. That is my eternal allegiance, not to Russia, Ukraine, Putin or Zelensky.

The Only Answer Is God Working Through His People

As covered, the previous issue resolved with the Polish Orthodox Church siding with the MP, with both the MP and EP recognizing themselves as responsible for said unity. We can learn that just as the Orthodox Christians in Poland had to make a decision, so do the Orthodox Christians today in Ukraine. Will the issue resolve as a repeat? Or will something different happen?

Moscow has not officially granted a Tomos of autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), although they have declared independence from Moscow in 2022. The war is an obvious major factor here, as the Ukrainian government labels the UOC as the “Russian-Moscow church” to be eliminated from Ukraine. The UOC formally asking for autocephaly at this time would only be more ammunition for persecution against them. The opponents to the UOC do not understand that communion with Moscow doesn’t entail blind allegiance or subordination. Just like other Orthodox jurisdictions are in communion with the Russian Orthodox Church but are no way subservient.

This throws another wrench in the works so to speak, if the war and persecution was over this will also change the landscape of this situation too. How will it all resolve? Only God knows for sure, and time will tell. We can simply speculate.

The issue today is the distinctive difference in the non-canonical groups recognized by the EP, as opposed to the canonical Christians the EP recognized back then in 1924. This certainly factors in to how things play out along with the war, and the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by Zelensky and the Ukraine government. I previously wrote years ago now, that the only way I could see the issue resolving was either the Ecumenical Patriarch rescinding the Tomos, or the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) figuring things out themselves with the newly formed Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). It does not seem the EP wants to budge on the former, just as Constantinople didn’t in 1924. So the latter, with the help of God, seems like the viable option.

To those who think rescinding a Tomos is not possible; it has been done by the EP back in the 1920’s revoking a Tomos from 1908 (15). I still don’t see this as likely barring some sort of situation with Turkey occurring. I now see a third option, under a pressing stipulation that if the war and persecution stop, the UOC formally requesting autocephaly would repeat 1924 Poland. The hope, as it always has, remains with the faithful remnant of Orthodox Christians in Ukraine. With God’s help this will be solved, maybe in the way mentioned, maybe in a way unknown to us. In His will.

Let us pray for Metropolitan Onuphrey and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church amidst the what I believe are the defining events of Orthodoxy in our generation. Let us pray also for the OCU, for those in it, that their hearts soften away from seizing Churches, and that they unify under the UOC and resolve things together; putting an end to the division and bloodshed. The only answer is God, He will lead and guide His Church as He promised. Prayer, patience, endurance, perseverance in Christ. Always. Amen.

Sources:

1. Bystrytska, Ella and Volik, Nadiia (2021) "The Question of the Autocephalous Status of the Polish Orthodox Church in the Documents of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church (1944-1948)," Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern E urope: Vol. 41 : Iss. 3 , Article 3. Available at: https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree/vol41/iss3/3

2. Kravchenko, Natalia. (October 11, 2018). https://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2018/10/11/7194911/

3. "Οἰκουμενικόν Πατριαρχεῖον". ec-patr.org. Archived from the original on October 7, 2018.

4. Roberson, Ronald. (2021). The Orthodox Church of Poland. Catholic Near East Welfare Association. https://cnewa.org/eastern-christian-churches/orthodox-church/the-autocephalous-churches/the-orthodox-church-of-poland/

5. Leonov, Mikhail. (2018). Ukrainian Church Autocephaly: A Web of Intrigue. Modern Diplomacy. https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2018/10/11/ukrainian-church-autocephaly-a-web-of-intrigue/

6. A. Vedernikov. 2019. Translation From The Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate. No. 8. August 1950. OrthoChristian. https://orthochristian.com/126622.html#sdfootnote3sym

7. OSS Interoffice Memo. (March 26, 1942). Ulius L. Amos to OSS Agent David Burns. OSS is the predecessor to the CIA. Documented from Matthew Namee, Orthodox History. https://www.orthodoxhistory.org/2019/12/02/greek-archbishop-to-proto-cia/

8. Ibid. Vedernikov.

9. S. V. Troitsky. (1949). Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate, 1949, No. 12, p. 52.

10. Ibid. Vedernikov.

11. Secretary Pompeo. (January 3, 2021). Posted on X. https://x.com/SecPompeo/status/1345792039091318793

12. Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. (2024). Kiev. Documented by OrthoChristian. https://orthochristian.com/159576.html

13. Matt Fradd YouTube Channel with Ben Shapiro and Jason Charron. (September 2023). https://youtu.be/4bBtAB9YRYE?si=imQRlraBEds9oP1x

14. Vovan & Lexus. (2024). Interview with Mike Pompeo. Rumble. Video presented in article.

15. Namee, Matthew. (2022). Origin of the Barbarian Lands Theory. Orthodox History. https://mospat.ru/en/authors-analytics/89748/