TOME FOR UKRAINE: 2 POSSIBLE SCENARIOS OF EVENTS

The decision of the Synod to provide Ukraine with Tome has 5 paragraphs. 2 of them are about general aspects, and 3 of them contain particulars. There is a paragraph which refers to the removal of the anathema from Philaret and Macarius, that recognizes the fact of “the faithful being in the communion with the Church” (referring to the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Orthodox Church in general).

Thus, today Filaret and Macarius are reinstated in their hierarchical and priestly rank. And parishes (as associations of believers) are de facto part of the canonical Universal Church of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. But there is no word in the document referring to the administrative structure of the churches.

The paragraph on Stavropegia is about the establishment (or restoration) of structures that are directly subordinate to the Patriarch or to the Synod (of course, of the Ecumenical Patriarchate). These can be cathedral church, fraternity, school, monastery, or even a separate parish.

Formally, all parishes are part of the Ecumenical Patriarchate as it recognized them as his own. But it did not recognize the canonicity and legality of the administrative structures of the UAOC and the UOC-KP.

This means that today everything depends on how ambitious the leaders of our churches will be.