The Constantinople Patriarchate and its leader, Patriarch Bartholomew, have sided with the those who persecute the church in Ukraine, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill said on Friday, referring to the so-called unification council that took place in Kiev last week and led to the creation of the autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st December, 2018) The Constantinople Patriarchate and its leader, Patriarch Bartholomew, have sided with the those who persecute the church in Ukraine, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill said on Friday, referring to the so-called unification council that took place in Kiev last week and led to the creation of the autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
"The pressure exerted on our brothers, bishops, clergy, monastics and laity of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, who do not want to participate in the anti-canonical decisions of politicians and schismatics, has in fact, only increased and increased. The highest state officials have increasingly started to publicly declare that the believers of the canonical church are strangers, that they have no place in their country, and this is about millions of Ukrainian citizens. In fact, the Constantinople Patriarchate and its patriarch have sided with the persecutors of the church," Patriarch Kirill said at the annual diocesan meeting of the metropolitan clergy.
The patriarch urged the clergy to strengthen their prayers for the unity of the Orthodox world and "peace for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church."
On December 15, a "unification council" was held in Kiev at the initiative of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Patriarch Bartholomew, at which Epiphany Dumenko was elected head of the autocephalous church. According to Ukrainian media, only two bishops of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) participated in the council. The Ukrainian authorities expect to get tomos of autocephaly from Constantinople in early January.
The Moscow Patriarchate described the situation as the "legalization of schism," stressing that it would have catastrophic consequences and affect millions of Christians in Ukraine and other countries.
