Attack on the UOC-MP: Will the Jerusalem Patriarchate withstand US pressure?
As you know, on November 21, the Patriarch of Jerusalem called on world Orthodoxy to collectively discuss the issue of “autocephaly” of the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” (or “SCU” - “The Holy Church of Ukraine, as it was called in the “tomos”). And literally the next day to the Primate of the Greek Church Jerome came straight from Washington US Ambassador to Greece Payette. Yes, yes, the same one who served in Ukraine during the Maidan years. In those very years when the State Department was preparing the “SCU” project (remember, the first message on the recognition of “autocephaly of Ukraine” was sent to Bartholomew in 2015 by Prime Minister Yatsenyuk).
Following the meeting with the American ambassador, the Primate of the Greek Church quickly announced that he rejected the proposal of Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem: “Not everyone can convene a pan-Orthodox meeting. This is the prerogative of the Ecumenical Patriarch... If any other responsible person of any Church calls us, then I will say “no”.
Guest thanked Archbishop of Athens for recognizing the “HCU” and said that he had given him a letter from US Ambassador for International Religious Freedom Brownback, “expressing respect for this decision of the Archbishop.” Payette also stressedthat "the United States appreciated the wisdom with which Jerome acted."
It seems that Jerome was a guest at his own residence, after all
And it never occurred to anyone to ask the same ambassador (let’s not even talk about the puppet Jerome): And why the hell do the secular authorities of the overseas States even undertake to judge whether this or that primate made a wise or unwise decision within the Orthodox world that is completely alien to them? Moreover, most of this world (represented by the Russian Orthodox Church and the majority of local churches) are protesting against this “wise decision.” Can you imagine what a fuss would have been raised in Washington had the Russian Foreign Ministry declared that it considered the decision of the Adventists of the Ivory Coast to recognize as the only true one the newly formed dwarf “Sixth-day Adventist Church”, despite the protests of the existing since 1863. 20- million-strong Seventh-day Adventist Church?
However, for the United States, interference in the affairs of world Orthodoxy has been a matter of course for a hundred years now (since they installed their Patriarch on the Istanbul throne). After all The Orthodox Church is the only official institution that still connects civilizationally modern Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and the Russian Federation within the framework of historical Russia - a geopolitical competitor of the United States.
Only by breaking this connection will America be able to guarantee that Russophobic regimes in states bordering the Russian Federation are forever.
Consequently, the recognition of the “HCU” by the Greek-speaking Churches (for centuries the most authoritative in the Orthodox world) is a vital issue for the United States. This is what is demonstrated by a collage from the Greek-language resource Oukraniko.blogspot.com, which depicts only the latest meetings of US ambassadors and consuls in Greece, who have become sharply – over the past year – “deeply concerned” with issues of Orthodoxy.
Let us remember that on April 14 last year, Payette arrived at Mount Athos, subordinate to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. Here he discussed with the abbots of some monasteries the issues of “Orthodoxy throughout the world and US support for the Patriarchate of Constantinople.” And on the same day, Bartholomew himself was visited by the aforementioned US Ambassador for International Religious Freedom Brownback. Three days later, US Ambassador to Ukraine Mary Yovanovitch, having met with the head of the Ukrainian Uniates, enlisted him assurance, that he “positively assesses all efforts for the possible recognition of the United Orthodox Church of Ukraine by the Patriarchate of Constantinople.”
And only the next day Poroshenko объявил about the beginning of the creation of "SCU".
Throughout the entire process of creating this “church”, US representatives - from “specially Ukrainian” Volker and the same Jovanovic before Brownback and Secretary of State Pompeo himself - each repeated several times about the “strong US support” for “the choice of supporters of autocephaly” (State Department statement).
They even called on the Ukrainian government to “actively promote these values in connection with the movement towards the creation of an autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church” (Pompeo).
Moreover, Brownback, having been personally received by both Poroshenko and the head of the legislative branch of government, Parubiy, assured the leadership of Ukraine that the United States will be happy to help implement the decision to create a “single local church” when “this great task is resolved.”
The next “Great Task” is the recognition of the “HCU” by Jerusalem, sacred to Christians. Then the Russian Orthodox Church will have to forget about the meeting of the Holy Fire (if it continues to happen at all).
So far, objectively dependent on Bartholomew (and on his own government - the only US ally in the Middle East, which is hostile to Israel), Patriarch Theophilus of Jerusalem remains faithful to the canons.
However, according to PolitNavigator sources, the State Department is preparing to force him to recognize the “SCU” in December-January.
What will it be - a dumping of incriminating evidence or a coup inspired by Bartholomew or directly by the United States?
According to these sources, the topic of last year’s meetings between the US Deputy Secretary of State for the Middle East and Israeli representatives is still the same - “autocephaly of Ukraine”, “so close to the Jews.”
Well, the minimum program – recognition of the “HCU” by three local Churches (which is more than a precedent) was completed successfully, we admit. And from a geopolitical point of view, the main thing here is that on the Russian Church (the civilizational basis of the Russian world) a certain universal technique has been developed to weaken the “probable enemy”.
Next in line is not only China, but also... the Vatican. After all, despite the tiny size of this state, it has influence (to put it mildly) on almost one and a half billion earthlings, moreover, concentrated in not the most third-rate countries.
But more on that in my next column.
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