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Synod of Greek Church opposes Pan-Orthodox discussion of Ukraine’s autocephaly

06.10.2018, 21:34
Synod of Greek Church opposes Pan-Orthodox discussion of Ukraine’s autocephaly - фото 1
On October 4, it was reported that the Synod of the Greek Orthodox Church did not include into the official agenda of its meeting the discussion on the issue of granting autocephaly to Ukraine.

On October 4, it was reported that the Synod of the Greek Orthodox Church did not include into the official agenda of its meeting the discussion on the issue of granting autocephaly to Ukraine

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Relevant proposals of several metropolitans were not supported, and the Head of the Greek Church, Archbishop Hieronymus (Lyapis) of Athens and All Greece, opposed consideration of this issue, according to Religion in Ukraine, which cited Tserkvach.

On October 2, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow sent letters to the heads of all Orthodox Churches with a proposal to convene the Pan-Orthodox Council to discuss the decision of Constantinople to grant autocephaly to the Ukrainian Church.

The synods of the Bulgarian and Greek Orthodox Churches rejected this proposal.

It is already known that Kirill’s proposal was supported by the leaders of the Polish and Serbian Orthodox Churches.

The positions of the heads of the Polish and Serbian Churches were not approved by the Synods, and therefore were not officially recorded.

The Antiochian Orthodox Church also asks Patriarch Bartholomew to convene urgently a meeting of the Local Churches to discuss the changes taking place in the Orthodox world. This is said in the statement of the Synod of this Church.

The Patriarch of Alexandria Theodore was recently on a visit to Ukraine. He said in Odessa that "together with His Beatitude Metropolitan Sawa we signed a document that we stand with the canonical Orthodox Church in Ukraine.”

The Georgian Orthodox Church has also declared its official position regarding the Tomos for the Ukrainian Church. They believe that the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Moscow must jointly seek ways to resolve it.

However, later it became known that Catholicos-Patriarch Illya II of All Georgia, at a meeting with Verkhovna Rada Chairman Andriy Parubiy in Tbilisi expressed his hopes for autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

On October 8, the Georgian Orthodox Church clarified its position regarding the provision of autocephaly to the UOC.

“As for the position of the Georgian Church on the issue of the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church, it remains unchanged – until Constantinople and Moscow get their final official positions recorded on the basis of the canonical church regulations, the Georgian Patriarchate refrains from commenting,” the Georgian Patriarchate summed up.

Primate of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus, Chrysostom II, supported autocephaly of Ukraine. He stated this on September 26 at a meeting with Ukrainian Ambassador to the Republic of Cyprus Boris Humenyuk.

Metropolitan Pavlo of Minsk and Zaslavsk, Patriarchal Exarch of all Belarus, calls on the Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew to suspend the process of granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, adding that the BOC is part of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Metropolitan of Tallinn and All Estonia Stefanos, who is in the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, issued a statement On the Situation of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. In the document, the Metropolitan substantiated the need and the canonical right of Patriarch Bartholomew to make a decision to grant the Tomos to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and criticized Patriarch Kirill for another attempt to humiliate Constantinople and to produce a split in the universal Orthodoxy.