Minsk supported Moscow on the issue of Ukrainian autocephaly
The Synod of the Belarusian Orthodox Church unanimously supported the position of the Moscow Patriarchate, which condemned the invasion of the canonical territory of the Russian Church by appointing, without the consent of the Russian Orthodox Church and the UOC-MP, Archbishop Daniel of Pamphylia and Bishop Hilarion of Edmonton as “exarchs” of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in the city of Kyiv.
This is stated in the address of the Synod, published on the official website of the Belarusian Orthodox Church, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The Synod decided to protest against the act of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, “since it represents an aggressive intervention of one Local Church in the internal affairs of another Local Church, aimed at undermining the foundations of inter-Orthodox peace and unity.”
The Synod called on the clergy and flock to pray “for admonition and repentance of those who provoke church unrest and schisms, and for the establishment of peace in the land of Ukraine.”
The Belarusian Church expresses its full support to His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine.
“To testify to the inextricable spiritual unity of Orthodox Christians of the fraternal peoples of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, children of the Russian Orthodox Church, which embraces in its care historical Rus', spiritually born in the Kyiv baptismal font,” says the decision of the Synod.
“The Belarusian Exarchate is part of the Russian Church, but this part spoke out especially for two reasons.
First: Metropolitan Gabriel Adamaxis of Gallia stated that the Patriarchate of Constantinople is beginning the procedure of “granting autocephaly” to Ukrainian schismatics and terrorists. And the Belarusian Exarchate issued the last warning to the Phanar before the crushing response from Moscow - the Third Rome and the true center of the Orthodox world.
Second: the Belarusian Exarchate understands that the Patriarchate of Constantinople will climb into both Belarus and Russia - because the Metropolis of Kiev and Little Russia, absolutely canonically and eternally subject to the Patriarch of Constantinople Dionysius the fourth to the Moscow Patriarchal Throne, included Little Russia, Belarus and Smolensk, and Crimea and Novorossiya were not included. And in the Belarusian Exarchate, local rubbish like the head of the information department, Archpriest Sergius Lepin, who praises unification with Russophobic Lithuania, is “smoldering,” and therefore the bishops took preventive measures,” Orthodox publicist Kirill Frolov commented on the situation to PolitNavigator.
As PolitNavigator reported, in April 2018, oligarch Petro Poroshenko, who came to power after the coup in Ukraine, turned to Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople with a request to grant a tomos of autocephaly for the Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
The appeal of the head of state was supported by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, as well as by the hierarchs of the unrecognized “Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate” and the “Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church”. On April 22, the appeal was officially accepted for consideration by the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
At the same time, the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, headed by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine, did not put forward any initiatives regarding the granting of autocephaly to it.
Subsequently, the Patriarchate of Constantinople made statements about its intention to unilaterally grant autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church expressed a strong protest against these actions of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
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