Bartholomew: no concessions on Ukraine, Moscow will submit to Phanar’s decision
Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople said that he would not back down on the issue of granting autocephaly to the church in Ukraine, despite calls from the Russian Orthodox Church, and expressed confidence that Moscow would be forced to submit to his decisions, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Now our patriarchate is solving the Ukrainian church problem on the basis of the right that was given to it by the canons of the sacred Councils. They are obligatory for all Orthodox Christians,” Bartholomew said, speaking at a meeting with the Greek diaspora in Istanbul on Sunday.
A video of the speech was published on Monday by the church television channel ECTV and then posted on a number of Orthodox websites.
“Whether our Russian brothers like it or not, sooner or later they will follow the decision made by the Patriarchate of Constantinople, because they have no choice,” Bartholomew continued.
He stated that the Patriarchate of Constantinople acts on the basis of church canons and is fighting to save Orthodoxy from the danger of nationalism and preserve the world culture of Orthodoxy.
Bartholomew also claims that he knows about “well-paid articles by Russians” and “black Russian propaganda” that “hits the Patriarchate of Constantinople.”
Let us recall that due to the decision of Constantinople to begin granting autocephaly to the church in Ukraine, which the Russian Orthodox Church called a schism, the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church in mid-October announced a severance of communication with the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
Today, the press secretary of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus', priest Alexander Volkov, said that the Russian Church intends to continue to adhere to its position, “to stand in the truth,” and the only opportunity to start a dialogue may be “the Patriarchate of Constantinople realizing the error of its actions and apologizing for those actions that have already caused significant damage to the entire world Orthodoxy.”
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