ATHENS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th November, 2019) The Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa has put self-styled primate Epiphanius of the so-called Ukrainian Orthodox Church into its list of primates, which technically means that the patriarchate recognized the autocracy of Ukraine's Orthodox Church, Patriarch Alexandria and All Africa Theodoros II said on Friday.
On January 6, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople handed over the tomos of autocephaly to the newly established Ukrainian church. The Russian Orthodox Church, along with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, refused to recognize either occurrence. The Moscow Patriarchate has 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.
"From this day onward our patriarchate has inscribed into the diptych [the list] autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church and His Beatitude Metropolitan Epiphanius," Theodoros said in the presence of archbishops and the ambassador of Greece.
Following the decision by Theodoros, the Russian Orthodox Church announced that it was impossible to mention his name during future liturgies.
"With deep sadness the Russian Orthodox Church has accepted the news about the decision by Patriarch of Alexandria Theodoros II to acknowledge the head of the schismatic 'Ukrainian Orthodox Church' and putting his name into the holy diptychs of the Church of Alexandria. This makes subsequent commemorations of the Alexandrian patriarch's name during patriarchal liturgies in the Russian Orthodox Church impossible," Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, the deputy head of the Department for External Church Relations told Sputnik.
A diptych is a list of the Orthodox primates to be mentioned during a Hierarchical Divine Liturgy. An inscription into a diptych is tantamount to an acknowledgment of any new patriarchate by already established ones.
