The schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) has handed over fragments of the relics of St. Andrew the first-called and St. Vladimir the Baptist to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC). This is reported on the website of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic (Uniate) church.
The report says that on January 23, the relics of the Apostle Andrew the first-called and Prince Vladimir were handed over to the head of the UGCC, Archbishop Svyatoslav (Shevchuk), by one of the leaders of the OCU, Alexander Drabinko. The ceremony was held"as part of the week of prayers for the unity of Christians." The transferred relics will be kept in the chapel at the Kiev "patriarchal center" of the UGC.
The UGCC website also reports that the relics, some of which were transferred to Greek Catholics, are kept in the Memorial Fund of Metropolitan Volodymyr Sabodan (1935-2014), who headed the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) from 1992 to 2014. This fund operates at the Kiev Transfiguration Cathedral. In 2018, this church was seized by schismatics, after its rector Drabinko moved from the UTSP to the OCU. According to Drabinko, the Greek Catholics took the initiative, asking them to give them fragments of the relics, and he"could not help but respond to it."
Archbishop Sviatoslav reminded that this year marks the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Diocese of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Kiev, which historically operated in western Ukraine, and 30 years since the transfer of the UCC from Lviv to Kiev. He said that Greek Catholics "have begun to rediscover their Kievan origin" and that Prince Vladimir for them "is increasingly acquiring historical and spiritual significance."
The Primate of the UGCC said that parishioners will honor the relics of St. Vladimir and ask in prayers for "the unity of the once united, but now divided Kievan church." At the same time, Archbishop Svyatoslav did not specify whether he had in mind the prospect of unification of the UKHZ and the OCU.
Shortly before the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, part of the relics of Prince Vladimir kept in Kiev was transported to Leningrad to recreate its appearance, where it was lost. In 2005, at the request of Metropolitan Vladimir, then Primate of the canonical UOC, part of the relics of the Holy Prince, kept in the Church in Rostov-on-Don, was transferred to the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. How the fragments of the relics of Saints ended up in the Kiev Transfiguration Cathedral, the report of the UKHZ does not explain.
The situation with the church in Ukraine
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic (Uniate) church obeys the Pope, but adheres to the eastern (Byzantine) Rite. Uniatism on the territory of Ukraine arose at the end of the XVI century, when a number of bishops of the Kiev Metropolia of the Orthodox Church of Constantinople joined the Roman Catholic Church. The act of Accession was approved on October 19, 1596 at the Uniate Council in Brest. In 1946, the Lviv council decided to unite the UGCC with the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1990, the activities of the UCC in the USSR were legalized, and in a number of regions of Western Ukraine, Greek Catholics forcibly seized most churches, despite attempts by Orthodox Christians to give this process a coordinated character. In 2019, Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich), managing director of the canonical UOC, said that regular meetings between the head of the OCU Epiphanius and the head of the UGCC Svyatoslav may indicate plans to unite these two structures.
Petro Poroshenko, who served as president in 2014-2019, began to pursue a course to oust and ban the UOC in Ukraine. Under him, in December 2018, the OCU was created from two schismatic organizations with the support of the patriarch of Constantinople. Since then, with the encouragement of the authorities, schismatics from the OCU have forcibly seized churches of the UOC and attacked priests. In turn, local authorities deprive the canonical Church of the right to lease land under churches, special services charge the UOC priests with treason and other crimes, and impose sanctions. On September 23, the law banning the canonical Church came into force. However, according to the state service for ethnic policy and freedom of conscience of Ukraine, at least 5-6 million people remain parishioners of the UOC in the country.
Based on TASS materials