Eastern Churches

We have been requested to publish Protocol 937 on our web page. Due to its length we are unable to publish its entire content but we are publishing the most important excerpts. What is most interesting and that which provides undisputed authenticity of this document is that it was published in Autumn 1995 by the "Eastern Churches Journal" which is published by the Society of Saint John Chrysostom in London, England. A member of the Editorial Board is none other than Bishop Vsevolod of Scopelos.

For those interested in reading the entire contents of Protocol 937 and for ease of researching the source of our reference we have provided the cover page and partial contents page of the Eastern Churches Journal, Volume 2, Number 3.

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Eastern Churches

Journal

Incorporating Chrysostom

A Journal of Eastern Christendom

Eastern Churches Journal is published by the Society of Saint

John Chrysostom, and discusses Eastern Christian Churches.

ISSN 1354-0580

Patron: His Holiness Maximos V

Greek-Catholic Patriarch of Antioch, Alexandria,

Jerusalem and all the East

In Memoriam: E. J. B. Fry and Dom Bede Winslow

Editor: Serge Keleher

Editorial Board: Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia, Bishop Vsevolod of Scopelos, Bishop Rowan Williams of Monmouth Brother Elias 0. Carm, Jack Figel, Andrew Onuferko, Donal Savage, Vincent Saverino, Graham Woolfenden, Roman Yereniuk

Editor Emeritus of Chrysostorn: Helle Georgiadis

The ECJ Advisory Board is listed on page 10.

The aims of the Society of Saint John Chrysostom, founded in 1926, are to make known the history, worship, spirituality, discipline and theology of Eastern Christendom, and to work and pray that all Chris-tians, particularly the Eastern Churches, may find full communion with one another to attain that fullness of unity which Jesus Christ desires.

Eastern Churches Journal, PMP House, Gardner Road, Maidenhead, Berkshire, England SL6 7RJ

Eastern Churches Journal, P.O. Box 146, Fairfax, Virginia, USA 22030-0146

Copywrite 1995, Eastern Christian Publications, Inc.

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Autumn 1995 Volume 2 Number 2

Page 233 through page 237

Reply from Patriarch Bartolomew to Patriarch Alexis

July 11, 1995, Prot. No. 937

"Your Beatitude and Most Holy ALEXIY, Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, our Modesty's most beloved and dear brother in Christ God and concelebrant, embracing Your venerable Beatitude fraternally in the Lord, we greet You exuberantly.

We received Your Beloved and distinguished Beatitude's lengthy letter dated May 18, 1995, Protocol 1308, and read it with due care……….The tone of this letter and its contents ……..stirred in all of us here……not only astonishment, but also very deep bitterness and even disappointment.

……in the most official terms and in the language of evangelical sincerity, we are obliged to present the views of the Holy Great Church of Christ in Constantinople on this matter with the hope that in the future we will not need to readdress such troubling concerns.

………..Fifth, of course to a certain extent we can comprehend the fears Your Beatitude and your Holy Synod have as to the consequences which the settlement of the Ukrainians in the Diaspora could eventually have had on the general situation in Ukraine, if proper care had not been taken. In this regard we would like to assure you that the induction of the Ukrainian communities into the canonical order of the Orthodox Church by receiving them under the omophorion of the Ecumenical Patriarch will, we believe, finally prove to be beneficial for the relationship between the Most Holy Church of Russia and the faithful in Ukraine. This is so because on the one hand those received were obligated to formally declare that they will not seek autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church, or even a part of it, through known methods employed by the "autocephalists" who operate in every way possible. On the other hand, it is no longer possible for them to cooperate or to commune with schismatic Ukrainian groups which are out of communion with the Orthodox Church without bearing harm to themselves, provided the canonical principle "one who receives communion with another who is out of communion finds oneself also out of communion" is still valid for them."

Signed…Your venerable Beatitude's Beloved brother in Christ,

+BARTHOLOMEW, of Constantinople

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Слідуючи ми подаємо скоротчений переклад найголовнішої частини листа.

Лист Константинопільського Патріярха Варфоломея 11 липня 1995 року, Протокол 937, до Московського Патріярха Алексія засвідчив домовленість із проводом УПЦ в США та Діяспорі щодо розриву ним зв'язку з Українською Православною Церквою.

" Ми бажаємо запевнити вас, що введення українських громад в канонічний порядок Православної Церкви шляхом прийняття під омофор Вселенського Патріярха буде, ми віримо, в перспективі корисним для відносин між Найсвятішою Церквою Росії та вірними в Україні. А це тому, що, з одного боку, ті прийняті були зобов'язані формально заявити, що вони, не будуть домагатися автокефалії Української Церкви чи навіть її частини, відомими методами "автокефалістів", що діють всіма доступними шляхами. З другого ж боку, їм вже неможливо в майбутьньому співпрацювати або спілкуватись з схизматичними українськими групами, які є поза спільнотою Православної Церкви, не заподіявши шкоди самим собі, згідно умови канонічного принципу "той, хто входить в спілкування з іншими, що є поза спілкуванням, ставить себе самого поза спілкуванням".

Підписано……+Варфоломей, з Константинополя

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