The following appeared yesterday as an op-ed at the Kyiv Post at the same time as our Metropolitan Epiphanius to Join Ranks of…Elie Wiesel and Mother Teresa? was going to press.

Ukrainian activists from Svoboda and Right Sector political parties carry torches as they march in Kyiv to mark the 110th anniversary of Stepan Bandera’s birth on January 1, 2019. (Photo by Volodymyr Petrov for the Kyiv Post.)

Apparently, I don’t stand alone among children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of Ukrainian immigrants in feeling alarmed at Metropolitan Epiphanius’ sympathy—or at least tolerance—for right-wing nationalist extremism within the ranks of the newly autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). I have addressed this issue twice for the Kyiv Post: first, on June 28 in Nationalist Extremism the Scourge of the Orthodox Church, and again, on August 6 in A Painful Tragicomedy Comes to an End…and Another Begins? Read More

Orthodoxy in Dialogue has shown unstinting support for the recent grant of autocephaly to the Metropolitanate of Kyiv (Orthodox Church of Ukraine) by the Patriarchate of Constantinople (see the extensive Ukraine section in our Archives)—yet not without serious questions and occasional criticisms for each ecclesiastical bureaucracy and its respective Primate when warranted.

The following astonishing and frankly embarrassing report appeared earlier today on the Panorthodox Synod website with the title Metropolitan Epiphanios of Kyiv and All Ukraine to Receive the 2019 Athenagoras Human Rights Award. We republish it here with editorial interpolations of our own.

Elie Wiesel, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Metropolitan Epiphanius of Kyiv

Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, Exarch of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, together with Archon National Commander Dr. Anthony J. Limberakis, will present the Athenagoras Human Rights Award to His Beatitude Metropolitan Epiphanios of Kyiv and All Ukraine at the New York Hilton Midtown on October 19, 2019. Metropolitan Epiphanios has been a strong advocate for religious freedom and a key defender of the ecclesiastical and canonical prerogatives of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Read More

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Nobody—not a nation, not a state, not a religion, nor science and technology—can face the current problems alone.
We need one another.

Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople

His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew attended the 10th World Assembly of Religions for Peace in Lindau (Germany) from 20-23 August 2019 where he delivered the keynote address. Religions for Peace, in partnership with the Foundation Peace Dialogue of the World Religions and Civil Society, is the world’s most representative, multi-religious gathering of religious communities. Every 5-7 years, Religions for Peace convenes a World Assembly for the purpose of forging a deep moral consensus on contemporary challenges, electing a new World Council and advancing multi-religious action across and beyond the Religions for Peace network. Read More

While Orthodoxy in Dialogue considers the notion that one can be “Orthodox in communion with Rome” to be ecclesiologically indefensible absent Rome’s return to Orthodoxy, we fully support open, fraternal dialogue on this topic and the underlying issues.

The following should be read in conjunction with Father Alexander Schmemann’s A Response to the Vatican II Decree on Eastern Churches of 1966 and Brian A. Butcher, Liam Farrer, and Kevin Basil Fritts’ dialogical Can You Be Orthodox in Communion with Rome? of January 2018. (The latter ranks #4 among all guest articles that Orthodoxy in Dialogue has published in our two years of activity.)

Conference participants. Stuttgart. July 19-21, 2019.

International conference in Stuttgart opens the door for dialogue between Orthodox and Eastern Catholics

Christian unity has gained much through various bilateral dialogues. Indeed, today there is almost every possible combination of bilateral dialogue one could imagine. Yet, a rare exception and omission from the ecumenical table is the lack of dialogue between the Orthodox and the Catholic Eastern Churches (the so-called “Uniates”). Throughout their shared history, these two traditions have lived through a very complex and sometimes tense relationship—not only theologically, but also politically. In most cases these tense relationships remain to this day; indeed, some have increased in difficulty (e.g., in Ukraine).

One of the key stumbling blocks here concerns the widely differing perceptions of what Eastern Catholic Churches represent. Regardless of historical accuracy, many Orthodox refer to these churches as “stolen” (most of these churches did not emerge from so-called processes of “uniatism” or “proselytism”), while on the Catholic side they are seen as bridges to the Orthodox traditions (a perspective which, again, many Orthodox strongly reject). Read More