The Patriarchate of Constantinople can no longer consider itself as a coordinating center for all Orthodox Christians after it legalized schism in Ukraine, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations, said.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th October, 2018) The Patriarchate of Constantinople can no longer consider itself as a coordinating center for all Orthodox Christians after it legalized schism in Ukraine, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations, said.
On Monday, the Russian Holy Synod decided to completely break its communion with the Patriarchate of Constantinople following its decision to start preparations for granting independence to the non-canonical Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
"Now we face a new religious reality: we do not have a single coordinating center in the Orthodox Church and we have to understand this very clearly. The Patriarchate of Constantinople has self-destructed ... By interfering with the canonical boundaries of another local church, by legitimizing schism, it lost the right to call itself a coordinating center for the Orthodox Church," Metropolitan Hilarion said in an interview with Channel One late on Monday.
Metropolitan Hilarion said on Monday that the Russian Orthodox Church hoped that the Patriarchate of Constantinople would change its decision regarding Ukraine. The Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church also saw political motives in Constantinople's decision to deprive the Moscow Patriarchate of the right to ordain the Metropolitan of Kiev, which was granted by Constantinople in 1686.
The Istanbul-based synod also lifted anathema from the heads of two non-canonical churches in Ukraine, Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kiev Patriarchate (UOC-KP), which was created in 1992 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the so-called Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, that had been excommunicated by the Russian Orthodox Church for their schism. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) of Moscow Patriarchate is the only canonical Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
The Russian Orthodox Church said that the decision of the Patriarchate of Constantinople was the "legalization of schism," adding that it would have catastrophic consequences and would affect millions of Christians in Ukraine and around the world. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate said that the synod's decision was a hostile act, interfering with the Ukrainian church's affairs.
