Russia's Patriarch Urges Bartholomew To Stop Partaking In Church Schism In Ukraine

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 31st December, 2018) Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill has sent a letter to Constantinople Patriarch Bartholomew, in which he urged the latter to refrain from partaking in a "political adventure around the legalization" of the schismatic church in Ukraine and warned that the granting of autocephaly to the non-canonical religious structure would put an end to the Ecumenical Patriarchate's primacy in the Orthodox world.

"I spoke with you in private and with few witnesses about the plans of the Church of Constantinople to legalize the schism in Ukraine. Now, when these plans have been substantially implemented, possibly for the last time, I am addressing you in front of the whole Orthodox Church .

.. [Please] step back now from communication with the schismatics and refuse to participate in the political adventure around their legalization," Patriarch Kirill said in a letter, posted on the Russian Orthodox Church's website on Monday.

"If you act in accordance with the intentions set out in your letter, you will forever lose the opportunity to serve to the unity of the Holy Churches of God, and cease to be the first in the Orthodox world, which brings together hundreds of millions of believers, and the suffering inflicted by you on Orthodox Ukrainians will follow you to the Last judgment ... I pray with all my heart that this will not happen. It is not too late to stop," the patriarch added.