During the 12th Ecumenical Social Week "Responsibility vs Populism," also an international seminar of the Ukrainian Christian Academic Society "Models of Unity of the Kyivan Church: Towards a Restoration of Communion" was held.Theologians and journalists discussed the issues of unity of Ukrainian Orthodoxy after Tomos, the problems faced by the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, analyzed the text of the document itself, including the recognition of the authority of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the conflict on primacy in Orthodoxy, and sought new models of unity, evaluating attempts made in the past.

"In the days of the fight for Tomos, many felt that with the publication of this historic document a unification would happen by itself. Today it has become clear to everyone that instant consolidation will not happen.

Unification processes will take a few years. And real consolidation will take place no sooner than both parties realize the irreversibility of change, will be ready to concede, forgive and seek a joint solution based on compromise," – noted

in his report Bishop Oleksandr Drabynko, Metropolitan of Pereyaslav-Khmelnitskyi and Vyshnevskyi.

Vice-rector of the Kyiv Theological Academy and Seminary of Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Volodymyr Bureha briefly analyzed the main points of Tomos and summarized: "The conflict between Constantinople and Moscow is not only a conflict concerning Ukraine, it is a deeper conflict about primacy in the Ecumenical Church, an understanding of this primacy and a certain architecture of inter-church relations. And we have to speak out on this. Tomos is not a situational document that is an answer to our internal Ukrainian problems, it is a historical document that fits the Ukrainian question into a wider range of church-wide problems of today."

The participants also had the opportunity to get acquainted with the realities of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), thanks to Serhii Chapnin, a Russian journalist from Moscow, the editor-in-chief of an almanac of contemporary Christian culture, "Dary"(Gifts). "The role of the laity, clergy and part of the episcopate in certain solutions in the ROC is minimal.

Therefore, there is an official opinion of the ROC, which is formulated by one person, and all other opinions are not official. The real life of the Church shifted to the other level – a parish one. We have ceased to understand what is happening at the Church level and have become simply parishioners.

It is the Church of silence, with tens of thousands of clergy, and a large number of parishioners whose voice is not even heard by ourselves. So keep that in mind, the ROC remains a great Church and the Christians in Russia still are present. If these individual voices of the people in the church were formed in one, it would have sounded very loud," – Serhii Chapnin is convinced.

Dr. Ihor Skochylias, Vice-Rector for Academic Work, UCU, during the seminar considered ecclesiastical models of unity, in particular, double communion in a historical context.

Instead, Dr. Pavlo Smytsniuk, Director of the Institute of Ecumenical Studies at the Ukrainian Catholic University, briefly outlined 5 models of unity and proposed an asymmetric approach to ecumenical dialogue: "If we wait for others to change, delay our forgiveness until another asks to forgive him, the spiral of unforgiveness will be endless. Today, the ecumenical dialogue has came to a logjam, because of the logic of compromise and reciprocity, a logic of market and exchange prevails. In such situation an asymmetrical approach to dialogue may be a way out. Of course, we must fear self-renunciation but the paschal faith means that giving life for others does not go unanswered by God."

Summarizing the discussion, the President of the Institute of Ecumenical Studies at UCU, Fr. Dr. Iwan Dacko emphasized: "We must speak about the Eucharist of reconciliation. What if we would share this Eucharist in order to draw closer? What if our faithful saw us serving together, it would have an extremely positive impact on them. If we would preach unity, not hatred ... God help us, together with our Orthodox brothers and sisters, to address the challenges that Christians of Ukraine face."