Former Greek Defense Minister Calls Recognizing Ukrainian Orthodox Church 'Crime'

ATHENS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th December, 2019) Former Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos said on Wednesday that the Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece "committed a crime" when he recognized the non-canonical the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC).

On October 12, the Synod of the Hierarchy of the Church of Greece became the first Orthodox church to recognize Constantinople's decision to give the UOC the tomos of autocephaly. On November 2, the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) stopped Eucharistic communion with Archbishop Ieronymos due to the recognition of the UOC.

"The archbishop committed a crime and the bishops of the Holy Synod committed a crime, when at the last bishop's council they were the first to recognize the illegal Ukrainian church before the patriarchates of Jerusalem and Alexandria," Kammenos said, speaking at a scientific conference of the Geopolitical Research Institute, as quoted by the Greek Romfea news agency.

Kammenos also said that it would be wrong to confront Russia, as Moscow was the main factor that guaranteed stability in Greece-Turkey relations.

The former defense minister said that Russia could guarantee that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would not follow his promises on taking over Greek territory or sending thousands of migrants to Athens-controlled islands.

Kammenos stated that he decided to go public with his speech because he wanted Greek people to know all about these issues.

In late 2018, the unification council was held in Kiev at then-President Petro Poroshenko's initiative, during which the UOC was established, uniting the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, two previously non-canonical structures.

On January 6, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople handed over the tomos of autocephaly, a document that grants Orthodox churches autonomy, to the newly established UOC. The ROC, along with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, refused to recognize the establishment of the new church structure in Ukraine and Constantinople's decision to grant it autocephaly.