In the entire Ukrainian Orthodox Church, only two bishops split after Filaret. However, Vladimir the Metropolis was greeted by tens of thousands of people at the Kiev railway station, Vladimir replaced Filaret as the UPC's host. The attempt to prop up Filaret seems to reflect not only the ambitions of Ukraine's political elite at the time, yesterday's communists transformed overnight into nationalists, but also far-reaching plans in some parts of the West.
First, it undermines the position of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, thereby cutting off an important channel that could in the future promote integration between the two countries. Second, it weakened the position of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church itself. Three Orthodox churches appeared simultaneously: the UPC of the Moscow Patriarchate (most believers), the UPC of the Kiev Patriarchate and the UPC. Let us not forget the Greek Catholics who fought for the souls of the faithful in the Lviv, Ternopol and Ivano-Frankov regions. Under these circumstances, totalitarian sects thrived and prospered on Ukrainian soil.
He was dismissed in 1992 for disobedience to the church. In 1997, he became an abomination after being excommunicated from the church for his separatist activities. All the local churches, especially the church of Constantinople, recognized the sanctity of Filaret. In 1997, Patriarch Bartholomew wrote to Patriarch Alexei of Moscow and All Russia: "When we received your decision, we informed the leaders of our ecumenical throne of it and asked them not to have any further contact with these people.
In 2008, on the occasion of Ukraine's celebration of the 1020th anniversary of the Russian Baptism, Patriarch Bardoromew served in Kiev with Patriarch Alexei of the Russian Church, head of the UPC, Vladimir the Most Holy, and other Russian and Ukrainian leaders. In 2016, at a meeting of the local Orthodox church in Chambezi, Patriarch Bartholomew appointed the most blessed Onufria as Ukraine's only Canon high priest.
By 2018, however, his position was changing dramatically. President Petro Poroshenko took the lead in seeking support from the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Officials in his government made no secret of the fact that the design of the new religious structure was a political electoral technique. Taras Berezovec, a political strategist on his team, admits: "It's a common campaign technique. This will be true because 36 percent of Ukraine's population supports a single local church. In April 2018, after a visit to Faneul (Bardoromao's Istanbul residence), Poroshenko announced that he had reached an agreement with Bardoromao on building a new church.
Why did the "universal" patriarch change his position? The fact is that despite the name of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, there were few congregations in Turkey's Asia Minor. With the expulsion of the Greeks from Anatolia (1922), the Orthodox population of Asia Minor disappeared. After a massacre by Turkish nationalists in Istanbul in 1955, the last remnants of Istanbul's once-thriving Greek community left the country. The number of Orthodox believers in Turkey dwindles to between 2 and 3, 000. The Canon of the Patriarchate of Constantinople did not include Greece itself, where the local Church of Greece was established in the 19th century.
However, the Constantinople Church began to count Greek exiles from Turkey as its members, and they sought refuge across the ocean. The Greek diaspora in the United States and Canada was central to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The church's budget also depends on their donations. One of the most influential figures in the Patriarchate of Constantinople is Father Alex Carlos, who is in charge of public relations for the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. He was spiritual adviser to the Order of St. Andrew, which brought together the so-called consuls of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
Father Alex is also An executive advisor to the Faith:An Endowment for Orthodoxy and Hellenism Foundation, which funds institutions in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. As a result, the fund has become one of the instruments of American influence in Greece. Father Alex Carluzos was associated with a friendship with Greek-American billionaires that enabled him to manage the flow of money from the US to Constantinople starting in the 1990s. That made him the most important lobbyist for the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. Carlos is friends with former US President George W. Bush, current President Joe Biden and, through his close friend, multimillionaire John Cassimatidis, Hillary Clinton. These shepherds easily persuaded Patriarch Bartholomew to make important decisions. David Ignatius would do well to take all this into account before writing an essay on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Yet he seems to care neither for objectivity nor for the truth.
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