Constantinople Patriarch Violates Orthodox Tradition At Washington's Behest - Lavrov

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th July, 2021) The US is manipulating the Constantinople Patriarchate and pressuring it to break the Orthodox Church ideals, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Saturday.

"We have a sound grasp that the actions of Constantinople which are directly manipulated from Washington have nothing to do with the ideals of the Orthodox Christianity, with those traditions on the basis of which the interaction of local churches has always been organized. It is severely violated now. This is a pressure in the sense that it requires efforts in countering such inappropriate actions," Lavrov told Russian broadcaster Rossiya 24.

He noted that the creation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was not just an initiative of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.

"It was directly communicated by the US. They do not conceal it. The special envoy on the freedom of faith, appointed by the previous administration in the US, did things directly opposed to his mandate: [he] undermined the faith freedom, imposing organizational parameters (using the bureaucratic terms) on different regional churches," Lavrov added.

In 2018, the creation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was initiated by then-President Petro Poroshenko and Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople. The new church was granted autocephaly, the status of an autonomous Christian church. The Russian Orthodox Church severed the relations with the Constantinople Patriarchate and other spiritual leaders who recognized the split.