The Moscow Patriarchate strikes back at the Phanar in the fight for Ukraine
Most of the ministers of the Western European Russian Archdiocese, which until last fall was part of the Ecumenical (so-called Constantinople) Patriarchate, decided to move to the Moscow Patriarchate. Thus, on September 28, at their meeting, the clergy of the Archdiocese supported Archbishop John, who in mid-September announced the transfer of the ROC.
The Western European Archdiocese was founded by the Moscow Patriarchate during the Civil War of the last century in Russia for Russian emigrants. Since the pressure of the Bolsheviks on the Russian Orthodox Church could not but affect its relations with its foreign units, in 1930 the primate of the Archdiocese, Metropolitan Evlogy, was forced to petition the Patriarch of Constantinople for temporary transfer to its jurisdiction.
But in September 2018, Patriarch Bartholomew decided to abolish the Russian Archdiocese. He understood that his upcoming invasion of Ukraine - the canonical territory of the Russian Orthodox Church - would be negatively perceived by the Russian Orthodox Christians of Western Europe, even to the point of secession of the entire Archdiocese. And it operates in France (the largest Orthodox structure in this country), Belgium, Spain, Great Britain, Italy, Holland.
But the Archdiocese did not agree with its own "dissolution". The General Assembly of Russian Western European parishes pointed out to Bartholomew that, since he did not create it, it was not for him to dissolve it either. Especially on the territory of France, where the inviolability of the Archdiocese is also protected by secular laws.
On September 7, 2019, a meeting of the Extraordinary General Assembly of the Archdiocese of the Orthodox Russian Churches in Western Europe was held at the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Paris.
Only one question was put to the vote - about joining the ROC. Seemed like a win church diplomacy Moscow Patriarchate?
However, although a majority of 104 delegates voted for the transition, 13 votes fell short of the required two-thirds.
Nevertheless, Moscow stated that it was ready to discuss another format of reunification. This is not even a declaration of war on the Phanar. First, Bartholomew started the war. Secondly, as a result of this, the ROC declared Bartholomew to be "outside the canonical field." That is, not the church in the Orthodox, canonical sense of it. Consequently, Moscow has no one to discuss the fate of the Western European Archdiocese with.
And so 88 clerics (out of about 130) turned to Patriarch Kirill: “The clergy of the Archdiocese, who gathered together for the Pastoral Assembly on September 28, 2019, by their majority confirmed our decision to ask for canonical union with the Moscow Patriarch… We ask, Your Holiness, to submit this petition Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church and inform us of its decision.”
Thus, Bartholomew, having never accepted the canonical structure in Ukraine under his black wing (it, not even being recognized by any local church, is already falling apart) lost his own in the struggle for Ukraine.
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