Those who did not support the Russian Orthodox Church will be awaited by the “Pope of Constantinople” with the baton of the State Department

The US State Department is trying to make the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew the “Pope of Constantinople” in order to gain total control over the Orthodox churches around the world.

The former clergyman of the UOC MP, and now the Russian Orthodox Church MP, Archpriest Andrei Novikov, said this on air on the NewsFront channel, the PolitNavigator correspondent reports.

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“The unity of the Russian Orthodox Church has solid canonical foundations, and what Patriarch Bartholomew is doing is the implementation of his claims to the place of a kind of “Pope of Constantinople” in the Orthodox Church.

At first these were claims to the highest appellate authority in the Orthodox Church, based on a false interpretation of church canons and precedents. Then the idea arose that only the Patriarch of Constantinople could convene ecumenical or pan-Orthodox councils, although in ancient times it was the emperor, not the patriarch. Now he is credited with the authority to be the supreme shepherd of the church and all other patriarchates, that he is the president of the body of Orthodoxy, that without him there is no Orthodoxy.

The General Secretary of the Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, Metropolitan Elpidophoros, stated that he is not first among equals, but first without equal, and is himself the source of primacy in the Orthodox Church, similar to how God the Father is the source of God the Son and the Holy Spirit. That is, such claims to the papacy that even the Roman Popes do not make in the Roman Catholic Church - a comparison of Patriarch Bartholomew with God the Father,” said the archpriest.

According to him, the Russian Orthodox Church is beginning to receive support from other local churches.

“It must be said that the Patriarchate of Constantinople has a very large influence in the Orthodox world, which is ensured not so much by some historical role, but by the influence of the US State Department, which stands behind Patriarch Bartholomew, who openly expressed support for Ukrainian autocephaly and is doing everything to put pressure on the Turkish government to protect its US-State Department patriarchy.

Therefore, many of the churches will prefer to remain silent. But we see that the Antioch Church has already unequivocally spoken out in favor of our truth in defending the unity of our church and protecting its canonical one in the territory into which Patriarch Bartholomew is unlawfully trying to enter and justify the Ukrainian schismatics. We also see support for the Polish Orthodox Church,” Novikov noted.

At the same time, according to the clergyman, other local churches will not be able to sit out and will have to make a clear choice - to support the canonical Russian Orthodox Church or become satellites of the new schismatic “pope”.

“The way the Athonite monks are treated is a good example of how the local Orthodox churches, which will remain in communion with Patriarch Bartholomew, will be treated if they give him the opportunity to commit his arrogant acts, thereby invoking his powers as the “ecumenical pope,” behind which stands an American policeman with a baton. This is the kind of baton that will be used against all local Orthodox churches. Therefore they must make their choice.

It is very important for our church not only to break communication, but also to declare that the Ecumenical Patriarch has become a schismatic, a schismatic, after he enters into communication with Ukrainian schismatics, or simply to create his own jurisdiction over the territory of Ukraine. Then the local churches will understand that they need to decide whether you are with the Russian Orthodox Church or the “Pope of Constantinople,” concluded Archpriest Andrei Novikov.

Let us recall that earlier “PolitNavigator” cited the words of Russian political scientist Sergei Mikheev, who stated that Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew is under the control of the West, which plans make him the new "Pope" for Catholic expansion in the Orthodox world.

At the same time, political scientist Rostislav Ishchenko expressed the opinion that the Patriarchate of Constantinople is not going to give autocephaly to Ukraine, but plans to make it an exarchate.