MOSCOW
FANS THE
"CIVIL WAR" IN LOCAL CHURCHES—P.Ts.U ARCHBISHOP ON DECISIONS OF
R.P.Ts. SYNOD
The
Orthodox Church
of Ukraine [PTsU] has commented on the decision by the Synod of
the RPTs
[Russian Orthodox Church] to break off relations with the
Alexandria Church
because of Ukraine. In the opinion of the spokesman for the
PTsU, Archbishop
Evstraty, the RPTs patriarchate is continuing to reflect the
Kremlin's attitude
toward reality. The archbishop wrote about this on his Facebook
page.
"Judge
for
yourself: when Putin could not halt the European movement of
Ukraine, he
extracted Crimea from Kiev's jurisdiction and launched a civil
war.
"Patriarch
Kirill
displays the same intent. When he was unable to halt the
recognition of
the autocephaly of the Ukrainian church, he extracted into his
own jurisdiction
the parishes and structures in other local churches upon which
he has hitherto
had the most influence and in these very churches he tries to
fan a 'civil
war,' inciting hierarchs and clergy to violate the corresponding
decisions made
by those churches," he noted.
According
to the PTsU
spokesman, following this principle Moscow has already seized
several parishes
of the ecumenical patriarchate in Europe, and now it is doing
this in Africa.
In addition, the RPTs urges hierarchs that are loyal to it: you
are with us or
with your own local churches.
"This
scenario,
which the Moscow patriarchate has worked out many times on the
level of
parishes in Ukraine—if a parish wants to leave the Russian
jurisdiction, then
it has to be divided and the smallest piece held with its
teeth—is now being
launched on the level of local churches. Now a couple of in Greece are already
playing such a
role, while in the Alexandria patriarchate only individual
priests have been
found.
"Other
local
churches are being likewise threatened: if you recognize the
autocephaly of the
PTsU, 'we will start taking over your parishes' and 'rebel
bishops will appear
among you,'" the hierarch emphasized.
"But in
reality,
such decisions will most of all have long-term consequences
within the RPTs,
since violation of the principle of the unity of the local
church will strike
the Moscow patriarchate itself: if it urges by word and deed
people within
other local churches not to submit to church-wide decisions,
then on what basis
and why should one submit within the Moscow patriarchate itself
to Patriarch
Kirill, or to the Synod, or to a ruling bishop?
"Digging
a pit for
other churches, the Russian patriarchate itself will fall into
it, especially
when external political support weakens.
"Whether
Moscow's latest decisions have anything in common with the good
of the church,
and the striving for peace and unity within ecumenical
Orthodoxy, with
canonical order, and with the very spirit of evangelical
love—judge for
yourselves," Archbishop Evstraty asks rhetorically.
As RISU
reported,
yesterday, 26 December, the Synod of the RPTs broke off
eucharistic communion
with the patriarch of Alexandria, halted the activity of the
representation
(metochion) of the patriarchate of Alexandria to the Moscow
patriarchal see,
and removed parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church on the
African continent
from under the jurisdiction of the patriarchate of Alexandria,
granting them
stavropegial status. (tr. by PDS, posted 27 December 2019)
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