Metropolitan Alexander (Drabinko) approves “jurisdictional pluralism” in Ukraine

The Church unity does not have to be administrative in nature by all means. In Ukraine there may be several jurisdictions competing with each other. It was reported by Metropolitan of Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky and Vishnevsk Alexander in his interview with People.in.ua.

"To have One Church is wonderful, because the unity is the very nature of the Church. But this unity needs not be administrative in nature. The main problem of Ukraine is not the existence of several Orthodox jurisdictions, but the fact that these jurisdictions (because the UOC-KP and UAOC have no canonical recognition) do not communicate among themselves, do not remain in prayerful unity," said Metropolitan Alexander.

The UOC hierarch gave an example of Europe and America, where there are Orthodox communities that are members of various Local Orthodox Churches. At the same time, he specified that these are communities formed on ethnic grounds.

"In Europe, the United States, Canada, and some other countries, there is jurisdictional pluralism. That is, there are communities of Serbian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Russian and other Orthodox Churches next to the communities of Orthodox Greeks. There is no split between them, there is no division. But there is a certain competition," said the bishop.

In the opinion of Metropolitan Alexander, the positive side of such competition can be that a native Ukrainian gets the opportunity not to go to the ROC church, if he wishes.

Recall, the issue of Orthodox Diaspora was considered at the Crete Council in 2016. The adopted document emphasizes that the strict canonical order of the Church provides for the presence of only one bishop in one place. The existing "jurisdictional pluralism" is viewed only as a temporary and compelled state of affairs until "a more appropriate time when conditions for the application of canonical akribeia germinate."