MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th October, 2018) The current push of Kiev and its supporters for granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox church is aimed at sowing discord within the Russian society on the issue, Syrian Grand Mufti Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun told Sputnik, adding that the similar external attempts contributed to the break-up of Yugoslavia.
"It's not only about the separation of churches, of different types of orthodoxy, of the same orthodox confession, but the process of the division of [Russian] society is underway. You might not remember, but some time ago Yugoslavia was stronger than Germany, and now it is divided into five different countries. They do not only want to divide religion, or the Orthodox churches, they want to divide Russia, Syria into several different countries," Hassoun opined.
Ukraine is a canonical territory of the Russian Orthodox Church. Although there are several churches there, only one has an official recognition � the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP). Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is seeking to achieve recognition of non-canonical institutions and to create a single local autocephalous church based on them in Ukraine.
Earlier in October, the Constantinople Patriarchate launched preparations for granting autocephaly to the non-canonical Orthodox Church in Ukraine. In turn, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church decided to completely "break the Eucharistic communion" with it as it qualified the Istanbul-based patriarchate's move to revoke the 1686 act transferring the Kiev archdiocese to the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate as canonically void.
According to the Russian Orthodox Church, the Ecumenical Patriarchate's decision is akin to the "legalization of schism" and can affect millions of people in Ukraine and other countries.
