On October 24th the President of the Ukraine Leonid Kuchma held a meeting with the leaders of the so-called Ukrainian Autocephalous Church, "Archbishop" Igor Isichenko and "Metropotitan" Mephody Kudryakov, where he declared that he "thinks it is necessary to keep on making the State efforts to create one united Local Church in the Ukraine. This announcement, along with the very fact of the meeting with the representatives of the schismatic grouping (which is practically unknown outside Galitsia) speaks of the adherence to the policy of direct interference into Church life, support of schismatic groupings, violation of the rights of millions of believers belonging to canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, who do not want to separate from the Russian Orthodox Church and unite with the schismatics from the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church and "Kiev Patriarchate".

The opinion of these millions of the Orthodox citizens of the Ukraine is simply ignored. Senior officials in the leadership of the State allow themselves to make utterances directly affecting liberty of conscience, again demonstrating the wish of the certain political forces and State officials to intervene in Church life. For instance, the chief of the State Committee for Religious Affairs of the Ukraine Victor Bondarenko claims, that the people dream of the union of all Churches and only obstinate ambitious bishops block the process. Statements of such kind try to falsify, substitute the point of the conflict between canonical Orthodoxy and schism, it is impossible to create a mean between them, and it is Church canon laws which are "obstinate". Besides, Metropotitan Chrysostom of Vilna and Lithuania (Russian Orthodox Church) said in the interview to "Russkaya mysl" newspaper that in the Ukraine, in contrast to Russia, they still try to control the Church in the secret services. We suppose that Bishop Chrysostom has weighty reasons for such announcements in the press.

1. At present the situation in the field of liberty of conscience in the Ukraine has got to a critical stage. There is direct evidence of totalitarian tendencies in this sphere. The most dangerous of them is the attempt of some high-ranked representatives of the State power to force the union with quasi-Orthodox schismatic groupings - Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church and "Kiev Patriarchate" - upon the many-million canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, which in our opinion is a policy aiming at the destruction of the Orthodox Church as such. Attempts to provoke the Constantinople Patriarchate to interfere into ruling the canonical territory of the Russian Orthodox Church, Ukraine, is also the example of the unprecedented interference in purely Church matters. According to information we received, various State structures work over different variants of creation of the so-called "Ukrainian Local Church", which is also a bold intervention in Church life and offence against the Constitutional principle of separation of the Church from the State. The State Committee for Religious Affairs, which itself is a rudiment of the totalitarian regime, has inherited the style and methods of its activity from that epoch.

2. The State officials who infringe upon the principle of the separation of the Church from the State, and directly or by implication appeal for interference of the State and politics in Church life, hence violating the rights and liberties of millions of the Orthodox citizens of the Ukraine, don't have the right to fill their posts. The matter concerns such political figures as Victor Bondarenko, Nickolai Zhulinsky and others.

3. In view of the critical situation in the field of liberty of conscience and rights and freedoms of many millions of Orthodox people of the Ukraine, we make a request to those Deputies of Verkhovnaya Rada (Ukrainian Parliament), those social and political forces who care for both canonical Orthodoxy and Democracy and rights and freedoms of citizens, to seriously consider state of affairs in the indicated area, demand unconditional dismissal of the officials guilty of the situation created, carry out investigation concerning the above-mentioned facts of the breach of religious freedoms, bring up a question of radical reform of the State and Church relations meant to bring order into legal field of this sphere, exclude interference of the State and political parties in Church life, carry out Parliamentary investigation of the mentioned-above facts and raise this problem to the international legal level. We are also convinced that the State Committee of Religious Affairs which is a rudiment of the totalitarian regime, must be replace by the State Commission of Cooperation with religious organizations.

4. We appeal to the leadership of Russia to raise the question of liberty of conscience in the Ukraine at the forthcoming intergovernmental negotiations.

5. We believe any interference of Constantinople Patriarch Bartholomew in Church life in the Ukraine to be absolutely unacceptable, especially after the steps he undertook during his recent visit to Estonia, when he had practically cancelled all earlier reached agreements with the Moscow Patriarchate, declared Estonia his canonical territory and suggested that the Moscow Patriarchate should recall from Estonia Archbishop Kornily (Jacobs), the confessor of Orthodoxy who had endured two years of prison for his Orthodox convictions. The demarches of such kind are not just flagrant anti-canonical actions and demonstration of hostility to the Russian Orthodox Church. They clearly bring out that the Constantinople Patriarchate will not observe any agreements. In this connection we declare that any political games with both branches of schism are unacceptable. We believe the idea of the possibility of direct or indirect recognition of the so-called Ukrainian Autocephalous Church by the Russian Orthodox Church, voiced in some of the mass media, to be provocative, as this step will consolidate the illegal presence of the Constantinople Patriarchate in the Ukraine. The next move will be the development of the events according to the Estonian scenario. We are convinced that that is what this provocative suggestion aims at. The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church is a schismatic, not canonical and clearly pro-Uniate grouping as well, and we can't make compromises between us. Any schism must receive strictly canonical assessment and playing footsie with its disciples are intolerable. The Estonian experience has clearly showed inefficiency of the compromise approach to anti-canonical, therefore anti-Orthodox actions of Patriarch Bartholomew. Recognition of any other jurisdictions in the canonical territory of the Russian Orthodox Church is out of the question. Besides that, we have weighty reasons to suppose that Patriarch Bartholomew is not free within his activity. As a matter of fact he is the hostage of the USA and Turkey. His position is comparable to the position of the Russian Orthodox Church under the "late" totalitarian regime - when the active phase of terror was over, the Church was put into ghetto, at the same time the hierarchs we made say that there were no persecution of the Church in the USSR, participation in the ecumenical movement was foisted upon the Church etc. Consequently all the actions of Patriarch Bartholomew in Estonia are all the more non-legitimate and don't have canonical validity.

6. In the present situation the fact of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church being the part of the Moscow Patriarchate is the guarantor of its freedom and independence. The Patriarch of Moscow and the Orthodox Church in Russia act freely, and independently determine their employment, internal and external policies.