Page - 185 - in Menschenrechte und Gerechtigkeit als bleibende Aufgaben - Beiträge aus Religion, Theologie, Ethik, Recht und Wirtschaft

© 2020, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783847111658 – ISBN E-Lib: 9783737011655 CezarMarksteiner-Ungureanu(Wien) “Forgivingoneanother” (Col. 3,13).Ethical andTheological ReflectionsonReconciliationwithin theUkrainianEcclesial Crisis* 1. Introduction On19thApril 2018, theHoly andSacredSynodof theEcumenical Patriarchate (EP) presided byPatriarchBartholomew announced to “[have] received from ecclesiastical andcivil authorities – representingmillionsofUkrainianOrtho- dox Christians – a petition that requests the bestowal of autocephaly”1. Re- gardingthispetition,theSynoddecidedto“closelycommunicateandcoordinate withitssisterOrthodoxChurchesconcerningthismatter”2.After the“Unifying Synod”(sobor)heldon15thDecember2018 inKievunder thepatronageof the EP, the newOrthodoxAutocephalous Ukrainian Churchwas established and Metropolitan Epiphanios of Pereiaslav and Belotserkovsky was elected as its Primate.3Thenewly electedMetropolitan received officially and solemnly the Tomosofautocephaly for thenewChurchonthe6thof January in thePhanar.4 Although Constantinople’s decision to grant autocephaly to a unified Or- thodoxChurch inUkraine shouldhavebrought ecclesialunity, ineffect it gen- erated a schism between the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and the Ecu- * Iamgreatly thankful tomydoctoral supervisor,Prof. IngeborgGabriel, forhersupportand fordiscussing this topicwithme. Ialsowish to thankDr.Ra˘zvanPorumb(Cambridge),Dr. ViorelComan(KULeuven),Marius-S‚tefanCiulu(Kiel)andDr.PetreMaican(Aberdeen) for readingandcommentingonthispaper.Their remarkswerecrucial forme. 1 Cf. EcumenicalPatriarchate,Communiqu8of theHoly andSacredSynod (04/222018), see: https://www.patriarchate.org/-/anakoinothen-tes-agias-kai-ieras-synodou-22-04-2018- (ac- cessedonJuly9th2019). 2 Ebd. 3 Cf.EcumenicalPatriarchate,Communiqu8(12/152018),see:https://www.patriarchate.org/-/ anakoinothen-15-12-2018- (accessedonJuly9th2019). 4 For the official text of the Tomos, see: Ecumenical Patriarchate, Patriarchal and Synodal Tomosfor theBestowaloftheEcclesiasticalStatusofAutocephaly totheOrthodoxChurchin Ukraine, see: https://www.patriarchate.org/announcements/-/asset_publisher/MF6geT6kma DE/content/patriarchikos-kai-synodikos-tomos-choregeseos-autokephalou-ekklesiastikou- kathestotos-eis-ten-en-oukraniai-orthodoxon-ekklesian?_101_INSTANCE_MF6geT6kma DE_languageId=en_US(accessedonJuly9th2019). Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY 4.0