ATHENS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th November, 2018) Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople called on the Russian Orthodox Church to recognize the Orthodox Church in Ukraine's right for autocephaly.
"The problem in Ukraine triggered our collision with the fraternal Russian church. It is difficult for the Russian church to understand that since the Ecumenical Patriarchate has united so many peoples in the Balkans ... recognizing their right for self-government, for church independence, for autocephaly, and has issued tomos on creation of local independent churches, Moscow should recognize as well that the Ukrainian people ... has the right for church independence, for autocephaly," Bartolomew told Metropolitan of Nea Krini and Kalamaria Justin on Sunday night.
The patriarch went on to say that the Russian Orthodox Church had been controlling the Ukrainian people "for several centuries," while it had received the right to do so in a "non-Orthodox manner."
�In October, the Synod of the Constantinople Patriarchate announced that it would proceed to granting 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 synod's decision has been welcomed by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who seeks to establish a single independent church in the country.
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.
