Bartholomew advises the Russian Church to forget about Ukraine
Patriarch Bartholomew, during the liturgy at the Cathedral of St. George in Istanbul, spoke about his vision of the situation in Ukraine, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The Greek publication “Proto Theme” writes about this.
In his speech, the patriarch advised the Russian Orthodox Church to recognize the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church.
Bartholomew emphasized that while the Russian Orthodox Church declares a schism of churches, the Patriarchate of Constantinople “talks about love.” “With the love that has guided the Mother Church for centuries, with this love we are now trying to solve the church problem of Ukraine,” he said.
The Ecumenical Patriarch admitted that Ukraine’s autocephaly became the reason for a clash with its “sister” - the Russian Orthodox Church. “It is difficult for it (ROC - ed.) to understand that just as the Ecumenical Patriarchate liberated so many peoples in the Balkans, thereby weakening itself, but recognized their right to internal self-government, church independence, autocephaly... so Moscow should recognize that the Ukrainian people ...has the right to autocephaly,” Bartholomew said.
“This people of almost fifty million has the right to their spiritual independence, autocephaly,” he added.
In early October, the Patriarchate of Constantinople announced the launch of the process of granting autocephaly to the Church of Ukraine.
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