Yelensky: Orthodoxy struggles with modernity and unity loss

Viktor Yelensky, head of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience, said this in an interview with Ukrinform.

"Orthodoxy suffers from a lack of theological understanding of modernity, from a lack of responsibility to creation and from the loss of true unity. The Ecumenical Patriarch insists that he has a special mission of service, that he is, in secular terms, a “gathering center.” The Moscow Patriarchate and some other Orthodox churches are undermining this mission and thus weakening Orthodoxy, trying to lock it into “national apartments,” he said.

Yelensky noted that the Orthodox Church insists that its essence is best manifested in conciliarity. In particular, there is a canon according to which those who were called to the council but did not attend are subject to anathema.

"However, this did not stop the Russian Church and three other local Orthodox churches from not attending the 2016 Council in Crete, which was conceived as pan-Orthodox. There were no theological grounds for this, and it further highlighted the problems faced by modern Orthodoxy," he said.

The head of the DESS added that the problems of internal unity in Orthodoxy and the challenges faced by the church in the modern world resonate with the broader issue of the interaction between religion and the state.

As Ukrinform reported, on May 20, the DESS launched a study on the issue of the existence of signs of affiliation of the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC with a foreign religious organization whose activities are banned in Ukraine.