ATHENS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th February, 2020) Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople is planning to hold an ecumenical meeting mirroring the one in Jordan's capital of Amman, which will unite the leaders of all Orthodox Christian churches, including Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and self-styled primate Epiphanius of the uncanonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate (UOC-KP), a church-related source told Sputnik.
On Wednesday, an intra-Orthodox meeting took place in Jordan, counting Patriarch Kirill, Serbia's Patriarch Irinej, and Jerusalem's Patriarch Theophilos III among participants. Patriarch Theophilos offered all Orthodox Church leaders to come together to overcome the current schism over the situation with the recognition of the newly established Ukrainian church.
"Bartholomew is currently gathering a synod the Constantinople's patriarchy that will discuss the situation in the Orthodox world and the results of the meeting in Amman. The patriarchy's three-day synod will decide on an ecumenical meeting on the current state of the Orthodox world. It will have the same name as the one in Amman," the source said.
He added that the patriarch of Constantinople was very anxious that the Amman meeting had taken place without him.
"It has been the first synaxis [meeting] involving the majority of the Orthodox world without Constantinople since the Great Schism of 1054 between the Orthodoxy and the Roman Catholics. This makes Constantinople very concerned. So the patriarch will gather the synod that will work for three days. Bartholomew is then expected to invite other churches, all other churches, including the participants of the Amman meeting, to settle [the issue], not the Ukrainian issue, but what has transpired," the source mentioned.
Last year Bartholomew handed over the tomos of autocephaly to the UOC-KP, led by Epiphanius. The Russian Orthodox Church, along with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, refused to recognize this. 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.
