Belarusian Orthodox Church Urges Constantinople To Not Grant Autocephaly To Ukraine

The Belarusian Orthodox Church (BOC) called on Constantinople to suspend its process of granting autocephaly to Ukraine, since this move might lead to a split of Eastern Orthodoxy, Metropolitan Pavel of Minsk and Zaslavsk and Patriarchal Exarch for All Belarus said Friday.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th October, 2018) The Belarusian Orthodox Church (BOC) called on Constantinople to suspend its process of granting autocephaly to Ukraine, since this move might lead to a split of Eastern Orthodoxy, Metropolitan Pavel of Minsk and Zaslavsk and Patriarchal Exarch for All Belarus said Friday.

"Our statement was drafted in a way to urge the [Ecumenical] Patriarch Bartholomew [of Constantinople] and the synod of the Church of Constantinople to review their decisions and do everything possible to either disavow the previous decision or withdraw it, stopping this process, which today is taking absolutely distinct forms of church schism throughout Eastern Orthodoxy," the BOC head said at a press conference in Minsk.

The Belarusian Orthodox Church is the Belarusian Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church.

According to Metropolitan Pavel, the Moscow Patriarchate, which includes the BOC, decided to suspend church services with the bishops of the Church of Constantinople in order to "somehow sober up the hot heads."

"But this is not a schism; this is a call, an attempt to appeal again and again to His All Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew with a request to suspend this act, otherwise there may be a split of Orthodoxy on our planet � this is very sad," the metropolitan stressed.

He noted that Minsk worshipers followed the events in Ukraine with deep regret, witnessing division, disagreement, enmity, and hatred between people.

"Any division in society is sometimes cured, sometimes suspended, when it happens on the basis of economic, political, but when it comes to questions of church life .

.. people are ready to lay down their soul and give their lives for believing in God and eternal life ... Division on a religious basis always has very serious and sad consequences," the BOC head said.

To prevent this from happening, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church addressed Patriarch Bartholomew and all the heads of other churches with a request to stop this division, Metropolitan Pavel said, suggesting that the Ukrainian issue would be one of the most important at the upcoming meeting of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church in Minsk on October 15.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is working to establish a single local autocephalous church in the country based on the non-canonical Ukrainian orthodox churches. In mid-September, two exarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople started working in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate (UOC-KP), which came as part of Constantinople's preparations to grant autocephaly to the UOC-KP. The initiative has been strongly criticized by the Russian Orthodox Church.

The Russian Orthodox Church, in turn, went on with the actual "breaking of diplomatic relations" with the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia and the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church suspended church services with the hierarchs of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. At the same time, the Moscow Patriarchate noted that none of the local churches supported the project of Ukrainian autocephaly.