R.P.Ts. WILL NOT
COMMEMORATE ARCHBISHOP
IERONYMOS IF HE RECOGNIZES SCHISMATICS
Commemoration of the head
of the Greek
Orthodox Church, Archbishop Ieronymos, in the diptychs of the
Russian Orthodox
Church (RPTs) will cease if he will commemorate during the
liturgy the head of
the Ukrainian schismatics, Vladimir Legoida, the head of the
synod's Department
for Relations of Church with Society and News Media, declared at
a briefing on
the results of the Synod of the RPTs.
"The Holy Synod of the
Russian
Orthodox Church authorized His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and
all-Rus Kirill
to cease commemoration of the name of His Beatitude Archbishop
of Athens and
all-Greece in the diptychs, in the event that the primate of the
Greek church
begins to commemorate during the divine liturgy the head of one
of the
Ukrainian schismatic groupings or takes other actions indicating
effective
recognition by him of the Ukrainian church schism," Legoida
said, quoting
the decision of the Synod.
The statement expresses
regret that
"the historic services of the Greek people in spreading
Orthodoxy are
being exchanged for temporary political benefit and the support
of geopolitical
interests that are alien to the church." However, the bishops of
the Synod
noted, "these speculations on nationalistic feelings will not
have
success."
"They
will not
be able to undermine the unity of our faith that has been bought
by the blood
of new martyrs and confessors of our churches. They will not
interrupt the
unity of our ascetic tradition created by the feats of many holy
fathers and
ascetics. They will not destroy the centuries-old friendship of
the Greek and
Slavic peoples, bought with the blood of Russian soldiers and
tempered in the
common struggle for the freedom of the fraternal Greek people,"
the document
notes, the full text of which was published on the website of
the Russian
Orthodox Church.
The
Greek Orthodox
Church (G.O.C.) on 12 October 2019 acknowledged the right of the
patriarch of
Constantinople to grant autocephaly within the Orthodox world,
at his
discretion. The report of the head of the G.O.C., Archbishop
Ieronymos,
contains the recommendation to recognize the "new church" of
Ukraine.
In particular, it notes that "the church of Ukraine has always
remained
within the canonical ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the
ecumenical
patriarchate," despite 300 years of the official recognition by
everybody
of its membership in the Russian Orthodox Church, and that the
recognition of
the church of the schismatics is a circumstance "especially
useful for the
Orthodox church and valuable for strengthening relations between
the churches
of Great Russia and Ukraine."
The
results of the
council of the Greek church evoked an ambiguous reaction within
the G.O.C.
itself. Thus, two Greek metropolitans, Seraphim of Kythria and
Seraphim of
Piraeus, declared that the Bishops' Council did not make a
decision about
recognition of the autocephaly of the "new church" of Ukraine
because
of the absence of a vote on this issue, despite the official
statement about
its results, and they called the council's decision invalid.
Seraphim of
Piraeus also declared the impossibility of granting
"autocephaly" to
schismatics. There are 81 metropolitans in the Greek church, of
whom 69 were
present at the council, but only 33 participated in the
discussion.
In late
2018, on the
initiative of Ukrainian authorities and the patriarchate of
Constantinople, the
so-called "new church" of Ukraine was created; it is a
schismatic
structure formed by means of the merger of two other schismatic
churches. After
receiving from Patriarch Bartholomew a tomos concerning
"autocephaly," in reality it found itself almost completely
dependent
upon Constantinople. On 15 October 2018, the RPTs ceased
eucharistic communion
with the patriarchate of Constantinople. (tr. by PDS, posted 17
October 2019)
Editorial disclaimer: RRN does
not intend to certify the accuracy of information
presented in articles. RRN simply intends to certify the
accuracy of the English translation of the contents of the
articles as they appeared in news media of countries of
the former USSR.
If material is quoted, please give credit to the
publication from which it came. It is not necessary to credit
this Web page. If material is transmitted electronically, please
include reference to the URL,
http://www.stetson.edu/~psteeves/relnews/.