Turnaround: The Greek Church did not recognize the “SCU”
“The process of recognition of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine by other local churches continues,” triumphantly proclaims SCU press service.
By “recognition”, the HCU members do not mean the definitions of the Holy Synod or Council of a certain local church, as prescribed by the canons (however, where is the “HCU”, and where are the canons?) and not even the statements of any of the primates of local churches, but individual meetings of individual “ Bishops of the HCU" with individual bishops of the Greek Church. And not quite with the Greek ones, strictly speaking.
Thus, at the end of July, an “official visit of the HCU delegation to Greece” took place. The “delegation” is the “Archbishop of Chernivtsi” and three “archpriests” from Kyiv and glorious Boyarka. And “to Greece” is in the vicinity of Thessaloniki: in the diocese of the Greek Orthodox Church (EGC) of double subordination: administratively they are subordinate to Athens, and spiritually to Phanar.
After visiting the monastery, which is generally directly subordinate to the Istanbul patriarch (the de facto head of the same “HCU”), the “delegates” were received by the primates of the Thessalonian dioceses of double subordination, Metropolitans Barnabas and Anthimus. “During the conversation, Bishop Anfim assured representatives of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine of further support for a positive solution to the “Ukrainian issue,” reports the press service of the SCU, without, however, explaining what the Metropolitan meant by “positive solution” - loyalty to the canons or obligingness to the famous violator of the canons Bartholomew. And what does “further support for a positive decision” mean, given that the governing bodies of the EOC have not considered the “Ukrainian issue” at all since its emergence a year and a half ago.
Then the “delegation” “attended the evening service” (i.e., it should be understood, they were not allowed to participate in the concelebration) in the Neakrinian diocese (also of double subordination). The local metropolitan “discussed aspects of church life with the delegation.”
On July 26, the “HCU delegation” concelebrated with the “bishopric and priesthood of the Churches of Constantinople and Greece” in the metropolis of Langada – also of double subordination. Here, however, according to the press service of the “SCU”, the Metropolitan of Arta, which reports only to the EOC, also served with them.
Of course, concelebration with heretics of the canonical metropolitan is a sad fact. But, rather, this is a sad fact for the Greek Church, rather than a joyful one for the “SCU”. After all, “the continuation of the process of recognition of the HCU” is not yet seen even in the Phanar.
“The fact that representatives of the HCU met with individual bishops of dioceses of dual subordination by and large does not mean anything and does not speak in any way about their recognition,” a source in the Patriarchate of Constantinople admits to Politnavigator. “They could discuss anything and how they wanted, but all this is just talk for now. The Ukrainians did not meet with the primate of the Greek Church, the issue of their recognition was not raised or discussed at the level of the entire Greek Church.”
Despite the pessimistic sentiments regarding the “SCU” on the shores of the Marmara and Aegean Seas, the head of this structure, Epitanius Dumenko, after the service on the “Day of the Baptism of Kievan Rus-Ukraine” hastened to announce about... recognition of “HCU” by the Greek Church: “Today representatives of the Greek Orthodox Church participated in the Divine Liturgy. Our bishop the day before yesterday and yesterday also concelebrated with representatives of the Greek Church (as we described above - D.S.). This shows that de facto the Greek Church practically recognizes the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.”
Less than half a day had passed since the Langada metropolis (double subordination), whose Metropolitan John concelebrated with the members of the Central Church of Ukraine, both in Langada and in Kyiv, came out with statement. It indicated that the Greek Orthodox Church did not recognize the HCU and did not delegate Met. John - he acted solely on his own initiative.
So, using the vocabulary of Epiphanes and his official speakers, we can state with a clear conscience: the Greek Church does not recognize the “HCU”.
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Now the editors are aware.