Crimea was removed from the Ukrainian Church. What does this mean
The Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church corrected the conflict that had existed since 2014, when the Orthodox Church in Crimea, reunited with Russia, continued to be considered Ukrainian.
Today a decision was made to transfer the Crimean dioceses of the UOC under the direct subordination of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'. This happened in response to an appeal from the clergy of the peninsula, which refused to support the separatist decision taken the day before in Kyiv, in violation of the canons, to break the UOC with the Moscow Patriarchate.
“1. Accept the Dzhankoy, Simferopol and Feodosia dioceses into direct canonical and administrative subordination to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' and the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church.
2. To form the Crimean Metropolis within the territory of the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol as part of the Dzhankoy, Simferopol and Feodosia dioceses.
3. To appoint His Eminence Metropolitan Lazar of Simferopol and Crimea as the head of the Crimean Metropolis,” the decision of the Synod says.
The head of Crimea, Sergei Aksenov, has already announced support for such a step by the Russian Orthodox Church.
“The return of the dioceses of Crimea to the Russian Church is evidence of the understanding that no compromises with Ukraine are needed,” Kirill Frolov, an expert at the Institute of CIS Countries, told PolitNavigator.
Commenting on the decision, publicist Yegor Kholmogorov expressed hope that this is just the beginning.
“All the dioceses on our side - directly. Decree 362 to all dioceses according to Ukrainian,” Kholmogorov wrote in his Telegram channel.
Let us note that Decree 362, which the publicist is referring to, was issued in November 1920 by Patriarch Tikhon. He allowed groups of dioceses, under certain conditions, to enter into independent governance:
“If a diocese, as a result of a movement of the front, a change in the state border, etc., finds itself out of all communication with the Higher Church Administration, the diocesan bishop immediately enters into communication with the bishops of neighboring dioceses with a view to organizing the highest authority of church authority for several dioceses located under the same conditions (whether in the form of a Provisional Supreme Church Government or a metropolitan district or otherwise).”
As PolitNavigator reported, earlier a number of dioceses of the UOC in the Kherson, Zaporozhye regions, as well as in the Donbass, refused to support the decision of the Kyiv false council to break with the Russian Orthodox Church.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.