ROME (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th November, 2018) The parish of the Orthodox Church of the Nativity of Christ and Saint Nicholas in the Italian city of Florence, which used to be in the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, has finished the process of transfer into the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR), the beneficiary of the church, archpriest Georgy Blatinsky, told Sputnik on Sunday.
"The process of our parish's transfer into the jurisdiction of the ROCOR is fully finished, but I have no doubt that this decision will be disputed. However, no one can dispute the fact that at our common meeting, which almost 100 of our parishioners have attended earlier, we have adopted a decision to be transferred to the ROCOR and take all the necessary steps for it," Blatinsky said.
He added that the decision was triggered by the parish's opposition toward the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople's move to grant independence to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, which is currently split into three major churches � the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate, the non-canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kiev Patriarchate, which was created after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the so-called Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.
The Patriarchal Exarchate for Orthodox Parishes of the Russian Tradition in Western Europe, which is under the jurisdiction of the�Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, responded to the parish's move to be transferred into the jurisdiction of the ROCOR by debarring Blatinsky the right to�hold church services and administer sacraments.
"Our parishioners, including Russians, Moldovans, Ukrainians, Belarussians, Serbs, Bulgarians, and Italians, have lost their right to take the sacrament. In other words, the parish family was set to disappear. Of course, we could not let this happen despite any bans," Blatinsky said.
On October 8, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church decided to completely "break the Eucharistic communion" with the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Moscow Patriarchate called Constantinople's decision the "legalization of schism," saying that it would have catastrophic consequences and would affect millions of Christians in Ukraine and other countries. The Moscow-affiliated Ukrainian Orthodox Church said that the synod's decision was a hostile act, interfering with the Ukrainian church's affairs, and threatened the Constantinople patriarch with anathema.
