Poroshenko was cheated and framed with the Tomos of Constantinople
The expectations of the Ukrainian authorities to receive permission from the Patriarchate of Constantinople to create an autocephalous Ukrainian church did not materialize.
The Kiev online newspaper “Strana” writes about this, indicating that President Poroshenko expected to receive a tomos from Partarch Bartholomew for the 1030th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus', which is celebrated tomorrow.
“But by mid-July it became obvious that Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew would not force events and justify the hopes of the head of the Ukrainian state. At the last Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate before the anniversary of the Baptism of Rus', the Ukrainian issue was not raised at all, and since Patriarch Bartholomew cannot make such statements without a decision of the Synod, and the next Synod will take place closer to the end of August, it became obvious that at least in the near future we will not have a Tomos of autocephaly We’ll see,” the publication notes.
“Considering that we must expect all procedures to be completed so that later there are no questions about whether this was done canonically or uncanonically, we are talking about the coming months. But no one counted on a blitzkrieg,” the publication quotes a statement from one of the main ideologists of forcing the issue of creating an autocephalous church, deputy head of the presidential administration Rostislav Pavlenko.
At the same time, Strana’s sources in the presidential administration say that Poroshenko is unhappy with the delays in this matter and is not very sure that the tomos will be adopted at all in the foreseeable future.
“Initially, it was clear that such a complex issue, taking into account the colossal resistance of Moscow and the Russian Orthodox Church, could not be resolved within several months in such a conservative structure as the Church,” says a source on Bankova. “But the president’s entourage was a group of people led by Rostislav Pavlenko, who decided to give Poroshenko a “wunderwaffe” to win the elections.
They convinced him that they could quickly come to an agreement with the Ecumenical Patriarchate on autocephaly and sell it to the voters as a colossal victory. It was on the basis of their information that Poroshenko voiced guidelines for the tomos for the Day of the Baptism of Rus'. But the reality turned out completely different. It turns out that Pavlenko and Co. simply framed the president and are now talking about the fact that no one was expecting a “blitzkrieg.”
According to the publication’s sources in church circles, the main limiting factors for Constantinople remain, firstly, the position of other Orthodox churches, primarily the largest of them, the Russian Orthodox Church, and the doubts of the Ecumenical Patriarchate only strengthened after the visit of its delegation to Moscow in early July.
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