West Behind Constantinople's Decision To Legalize Schism In Ukraine - Orthodox Society

Western countries led by the United States are behind the decision of the Patriarchate of Constantinople to legalize schism and to start preparations for granting independence to the non-canonical Orthodox Church in Ukraine in an attempt to stir up the tension between Kiev and Moscow, member of Board of Directors of Imperial Orthodox Palestinian-Russian Society told Sputnik on Tuesday.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th October, 2018) Western countries led by the United States are behind the decision of the Patriarchate of Constantinople to legalize schism and to start preparations for granting independence to the non-canonical Orthodox Church in Ukraine in an attempt to stir up the tension between Kiev and Moscow, member of board of Directors of Imperial Orthodox Palestinian-Russian Society told Sputnik on Tuesday.

On Monday, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) announced cancellation of Eucharistic communion with the Constantinople Patriarchate in connection with Constantinople's decision to begin granting autocephaly to the non-canonical church in Ukraine, which the ROC called a schism.

"This decision was dictated by the United States while the Patriarchate of Constantinople was bribed by [Ukrainian President Petro] Poroshenko. Constantinople is the first among equals, but it has the same rights with the Romanian, Albanian and Georgian churches. This undermines all canonical foundations of the Church. All this is happening to destroy the united Orthodox Church as a foundation on which Russia stands," Oleg Fomin said.

According to Fomin, the Patriarch of Constantinople could not lift anathema from the heads of two non-canonical churches in Ukraine, because he was not the one who had imposed it.

"He does not own the church and he cannot declare his exarchate," he added, noting that such decisions could only be taken at pan-Orthodox gathering.

The ROC said that the decisions of the Patriarchate of Constantinople might have catastrophic consequences and would affect millions of Christians in Ukraine and worldwide.

The Holy Synod of the ROC called Constantinople's decision to withdraw the act of 1686 to transfer the Kiev archdiocese to the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate canonically insignificant and noted that the decision was politically motivated. Head of the ROC's department for external church relations (DECR) Metropolitan Hilarion noted that the ROC hoped that the decision to grant autocephaly the Ukrainian church would be reversed, and until that time, Constantinople would be in a schism.

The Constantinople Patriarchate also ex parte lifted anathema from the heads of two non-canonical churches in Ukraine, Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kiev Patriarchate (UOC-KP), which was created in 1992 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the so-called Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, that had been excommunicated by the ROC for their schism. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) is the only canonical Orthodox Church in Ukraine.