A Canon Aimed at Moscow?

Well, I imagine that –contrary to the hopes expressed in the vlog below–cooler heads are not prevailing.

At least not in Istanbul. What we are seeing is papalism run amok. Ultimately, this will not stand. Unfortunately, in the meantime, much sorrow will ensue. Including schism. And possibly bloodshed. And all for what? To try and make one particular patriarchate which has been moribund for centuries “relevant” to the world? Not merely at the cost of schism but to place the Orthodox Faith on the procrustean bed of modernist sensibilities?

Truth be told, Patriarch Bartholomew has played the horrible hand that history has dealt his See rather deftly lo these last two decades. No one can say that, thanks to his adroitness, “Constantinople” is no longer relevant. But to what end? The furtherance of the Gospel? I don’t see Christ-like behavior in the Ukrainian forces which have so far taken over (or even destroyed) those canonical parishes that belong to Moscow.

To play the political game requires more than skill. It requires goodwill as well. This would not be the first time that a Byzantine patriarch has squandered goodwill. I am loathe to point out that the armies of Sultan Mehmet II which besieged Constantinople in 1453 contained significant numbers of Orthodox Christians in their ranks. No doubt, they had their reasons; regardless, they did not feel that they were doing wrong. But point it out I must.

This bears repeating: once squandered, moral authority is hard to regain.

“By their fruits ye shall know them”. What are the fruits of that venerable See? One would be hard pressed to name any.

I encourage you to take the time to read this thoughtful piece by Nun Cornelia (Rees). It’s a little on the long side but she pretty much lays it out on the line. (My own humble thoughts follow below.)

Forgive me. It’s not given to me to judge a bishop. I tremble as I write these words. Still, I feel that it is incumbent of even the meanest of us to jump into the breach if necessary.

Lord have mercy.

Monomakhos

Source: Orthodox Christian

By Nun Cornelia (Rees)

Last Friday, August 31, 2018, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia flew to Istanbul to meet with His All Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. Everyone who is interested in the problem of Ukrainian Orthodoxy was waiting with baited breath for the outcome of the meeting. Will Constantinople go ahead and fulfill President Petro Poroshenko’s request that an autocephalous Church be granted in the Ukraine, making that country separate from Russia not only in body but also in soul? Or will Patriarch Kirill come and dash all his hopes? That day, there was very little information in the official press releases to satisfy everyone’s curiosity.

The meeting between His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia with His All Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople

The meeting between His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia with His All Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople

From Constantinople:

His Beatitude Patriarch Kirill of Moscow at the Phanar

On Friday morning, August 31, 2018, following his communicated desire, His Beatitude Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, accompanied by His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, the Reverend Protopriest Nikolai Balashov and the Reverend Presbyter Anatoly Churyakov, interpreter, arrived at the Phanar in order to deliberate with His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on matters of inter-Orthodox concern.

Patriarch Kirill was greeted at the airport by His Eminence Metropolitan Gennadios of Sassima and the Very Reverend Grand Archimandrite Vissarion, Archivist of the Patriarchate.

His Beatitude proceeded to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, where he was greeted by Their Eminences Metropolitans Emmanuel of France and Bartholomew of Smyrna, as well as the members of the Patriarchal Court, led by the Very Reverend Grand Chancellor Andreas. After paying his respects at the Venerable Patriarchal Church, he was received by His All-Holiness in the Chamber of the Throne, in the presence of members of the Holy and Sacred Synod and other Hierarchs, who had traveled to the Phanar to participate in the Synaxis of the Hierarchs of the Ecumenical Throne on the feast of Indiction.

His All-Holiness warmly welcomed His Beatitude to the courts of the Mother Church, recalling their spiritual fathers, Elder Metropolitan Meliton of Chalcedon and Metropolitan Nikodim of Leningrad of blessed memory, and all those who have worked for bilateral relations between the two Churches, as well as inter-Orthodox relations in general. He emphasized the importance of dialogue as a God-given means towards overcoming emerging challenges. His Beatitude responded by expressing the deep emotion and vivid recollections of past visits to the Queen of Cities and his collaboration with His All-Holiness.

The two Primates then held a lengthy private discussion in the Patriarchal Office together with Their Eminences Metropolitans Emmanuel of France and Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations.

At the conclusion of their two-and-a-half hour conversation, His Beatitude departed for Moscow.

The end. No mention of the Ukraine. Patriarch Kirill is given the title of “His Beatitude”, in our language generally ascribed to the head of an autocephalous Church.

And from the Moscow Patriarchate:

Fraternal meeting of Primates of Church of Constantinople and Russian Orthodox Church

According to His Holiness, for the two years that have passed since the previous meeting of the two Primates, “much has happened in the life of our Churches, and the whole situation in the world has greatly changed.”

Having described the dialogue that took place between them as “a talk between two brothers”, Patriarch Kirill stated that they discussed “all the problems on the agenda”.

“I hope we will continue working together so that the world may become better”, he added.

“Without coordination with His Holiness, I would not like to let you into details, although there was nothing secret”, Patriarch Kirill specified, “it was a very correct talk—a talk between the Primates of two Churches who are aware of their responsibility for the state of Universal Orthodoxy and for the state of human souls in the places and countries under our responsibility.”

Speaking about a continuation of pan-Orthodox dialogue, His Holiness emphasized that “problems keep emerging, challenging Churches from the pastoral point of view. The world is changing very rapidly, and no Church can make decisions that would run contrary to the position of another Orthodox Church.

“Therefore, we are simply programmed for interaction and cooperation, and since the world is rapidly changing, this cooperation, too, should be dynamic enough,” His Holiness concluded.

Among the persons who accompanied His Holiness during his trip were Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the department for external church relations (DECR), Archpriest Nikolay Balashov, DECR vice-chairman, Rev. Nikola head of the Patriarchal Press Service, and Rev. Anatoly Churyakov, DECR staff member.

Again, no mention of the Ukraine—only an oblique statement that Patriarch Kirill would not be disclosing the details to the reporters, but that there was nothing secret.

However, that same day, the Synaxis of Hierarchs of The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople commenced. The Ecumenical Patriarch’s opening remarks were not posted on the website of the EP, but they were posted on the website of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA.

Very many of our readers may not be familiar with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA. That would not be surprising since they are almost entirely Ukrainian, and serve in the Ukrainian language. Anyone who has the fortitude to delve into this subject more thoroughly can find that Church’s history here. It was a church organization that had its beginnings in a Ukrainian nationalist awakening in the early twentieth century, and found its self-realization fully only in the Ukrainian diaspora, where it was joined by a large number of Greek Catholic (Uniate) Ukrainians who desired to break away from the Catholic Church. For many years it was non-canonical, until it was received into the Ecumenical Patriarchate by Archbishop Athenogoras (later Patriarch of Constantinople) head of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.

So, here is what the Ecumenical Patriarch had to say in his opening address at the Synaxis of Hierarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (for the full text posted on the UOC of the USA, see here):

… The Ecumenical Patriarchate is, for Orthodoxy, a leaven “which leavens the whole lump” (cf. Gal. 5.9) of the Church and of history… As time unfolds, we become conscious of the fact that something magnificent is taking place, something that can only be reckoned a divine gift since our very existence is grafted onto the culture of the Mother Church, while all things are transformed and conceived as strange; the heavens are opened, new life emerges, and our existence welcomes the good change of the right hand of the Almighty.

This is why the Mother Church assumes a leadership role in disseminating sacred scholarship and theological learning, not shying away from secular knowledge in its experience and practice….

The Ecumenical Patriarchate is, for Orthodoxy, a leaven “which leavens the whole lump” (cf. Gal. 5.9) of the Church and of history… As time unfolds, we become conscious of the fact that something magnificent is taking place, something that can only be reckoned a divine gift since our very existence is grafted onto the culture of the Mother Church, while all things are transformed and conceived as strange; the heavens are opened, new life emerges, and our existence welcomes the good change of the right hand of the Almighty.

This is why the Mother Church assumes a leadership role in disseminating sacred scholarship and theological learning….

No matter how much some wish to embellish the situation in Ukraine, history proves them wrong and presents indisputable arguments demonstrating that the origin of difficulties and reactions in Ukraine are neither a recent phenomenon nor something created by the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Already from the early 14th century, when the see of the Kievan Metropolis was moved without the canonical permission of the Mother Church to Moscow, there have been tireless efforts on the part of our Kievan brothers for independence from ecclesiastical control by the Moscow center. Indeed, the obstinacy of the Patriarchate of Moscow was instrumental in occasionally creating repeated mergers and restorations of ecclesiastical eparchies, uncanonical elections of Bishops as well as schisms, which still afflict the pious Ukrainian people.

However, beyond all this, a study of the matter in the light of the sacred canons does not justify any intervention whatsoever by the Church of Russia. The Tome proclaiming Moscow as a Patriarchate does not include the region of today’s Metropolis of Kiev in the jurisdiction of Moscow. Moreover, after the well-known manner of proclamation of Moscow as a Patriarchate by Ecumenical Patriarch Jeremiah II (Tranos), the canonical dependence of Kiev to the Mother Church of Constantinople remained constant and uninterrupted. In the year 1686, our predecessor, the late Patriarch Dionysios IV, following great political pressure from the harrowing circumstances and for peace in the local Church, was obliged to issue a letter granting Moscow the license to ordain the Metropolitan of Kiev on the inviolable condition that every Metropolitan of Kiev would commemorate the name of the Ecumenical Patriarch as his ecclesiastical superior and authority, but also to demonstrate the canonical jurisdiction of Constantinople over this Metropolis.

As far as we know, no other act changing the canonical state of Kiev or revision of the condition to commemorate Constantinople has ever occurred; nor of course has there been any such change on the part of the Mother Church ceding Kiev completely to Russia. The uncanonical interventions of Moscow from time to time in the affairs of Kiev and the toleration on the part of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in previous years do not validate any ecclesiastical violation. Instead, the terms of the 6thCanon of the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea are precisely valid in this case, as the commentator Aristinos observes: “Each patriarch should be satisfied with his own privileges and not snatch the privileges of another eparchy, which does not lie within or under the authority of his jurisdiction. For this is the conceit of worldly power.” (Rallis-Potlis, Constitution of the Holy and Sacred Canons, Volume 2, p. 131) In this spirit, the Mother Church did not concede its canonical rights over Ukraine, but incorporated a special reference in the Patriarchal and Synodal Tome “about the granting of the status of autocephaly to the Church of Poland” (1924), noting that “the original detachment from our Throne of the Metropolis of Kiev and its dependent Orthodox Churches of Lithuania and Poland, along with their attachment to the Holy Church of Moscow did not at all occur in accordance with the conventional canonical regulations; nor were the agreed statements about complete ecclesiastical self-sufficiency of the Metropolitan of Kiev, bearing the title of Exarch of the Ecumenical Throne, respected…”

In any case, it is true that the occasional deliberate efforts of the Church of Russia to resolve this matter failed. Thus, since Russia, as the one responsible for the current painful situation in Ukraine, is unable to solve the problem, the Ecumenical Patriarchate assumed the initiative of resolving the problem in accordance with the authority afforded to it by the Sacred Canons and the jurisdictional responsibility over the eparchy of Kiev, receiving a request to this end by the honorable Ukrainian Government, as well as recurring requests by “Patriarch” Philaret of Kiev appealing for our adjudication of his case.

At our instruction, the right reverend Bishop and professor Makarios of Christoupolis studied the question of Ukraine for many days, and the fruit of his extensive research into this complicated matter was a document of over ninety pages, which His Grace offered to the Mother Church. We thank and congratulate him. And since he already has a firm grasp of the issue, we have asked him to address this Venerable Body on the ecclesiastical perspective of the timely issue of Ukraine, and we are certain that all of us will have much to benefit from listening to him…

We imagine that all of the Hierarchs serving within the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Throne know very well that the 4th Ecumenical Council, among other decisions, honored the exceptional privilege of “the right to appeal” (ekkliton) of the Throne of Constantinople with the decrees of its 9thand 17thCanons. Numerous instances of the exercise of this right to appeal by Hierarchs and clergy of other jurisdictions have been recorded through the centuries in the historical journey of the Mother Church. Worthy of mention here is the determination of the canonist Miodrag Petrovic, that “the Archbishop of Constantinople alone has the privilege to judge and adjudicate conflicts of bishops, clergy and metropolitans of other patriarchs.” (Nomocanon on the 14 Titles and the Byzantine Commentators, p. 206)

The right reverend Bishop Kyrillos of Abydos, Professor at the National and Capodistrian University of Athens, a devout scholar of the written and spoken word, will address the unique privilege of the Church of Constantinople to receive the appeal of Hierarchs and clergy seeking refuge from all local Orthodox Churches in his presentation, entitled “The Privilege of Eccliton (Right to Appeal): Historical, Canonical and Theological Perspectives.” We gladly await his analysis of this subject…

At times, we confront trials and temptations precisely because some people falsely believe that they can love the Orthodox Church, but not the Ecumenical Patriarchate, forgetting that it incarnates the authentic ecclesiastical ethos of Orthodoxy. “In the beginning was the Word . . . in him was life, and the life was the light of men.” (John 1.1,4) The beginning of the Orthodox Church is the Ecumenical Patriarchate; “in this is life, and the life is the light of the Churches.” The late Metropolitan Kyrillos of Gortyna and Arcadia, a beloved Hierarch of the Mother Church and personal friend, was right to underline that “Orthodoxy cannot exist without the Ecumenical Patriarchate.”

During the first millennium, our blessed forefathers confronted the temptation of heresy. The great temptation of the second millennium, which was also bequeathed to the millennium we have now entered, is the status of jurisdictions. The source of this problem is ethnophyletism, the propensity to expansionism and the disregard of the boundaries defined by the Patriarchal and Synodal Tomes. The Ecumenical Patriarchate bears the responsibility of setting matters in ecclesiastical and canonical order because it alone has the canonical privilege as well as the prayer and blessing of the Church and the Ecumenical Councils to carry out this supreme and exceptional duty as a nurturing Mother and birth-giver of Churches. If the Ecumenical Patriarchate denies its responsibility and removes itself from the inter-Orthodox scene, then the local Churches will proceed “as sheep without a shepherd” (Matt. 9.36), expending their energy in ecclesiastical initiatives that conflate the humility of faith and the arrogance of power…

This certainly sounds very different from the “fraternal meeting” of that same day between Ecumenical Patriarch and the Patriarch of Moscow. It is no wonder that it was not posted on the EP’s official site. Now we really don’t know what’s going on, but let’s look at a few points in the address in an attempt to interpret what is going on in the mind of His All Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew.

The Phanar

The Phanar

1. The Ecumenical Patriarchate sees what is going on as a sort of new breath of the Spirit that confirms its position as the Mother Church of all Orthodox Churches, and renews their very existence. Located as they are in a once great Byzantine city that has been for many centuries part of Moslem Turkey, the Greek Orthodox population having been humiliated, and the EP not being entirely in charge even of the population of present-day Greece, one can see how it would long for renewal and territorial rights. Furthermore it sees itself as the leaven and guardian of the Orthodox ethos due to its preponderance of scholarly bishops. Apparently the Orthodox theological academies of other Local Churches are still in the foundling stage and cannot be trusted to come to reliable conclusions about Church canons.

2. The dire situation in Ukrainian Orthodoxy with its two schismatic groups, the seizure of and arson against Moscow Patriarchate Churches, and the total confusion in the West about the situation as a whole is no fault of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. In fact, the Moscow Patriarchate is to blame for all of this. It, after all, has not managed to solve the problem. But how could the MP have solved the problem? Should it have just let Philaret take over and have an autocephalous Church in Ukraine? What does the opinion of all the other bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church matter (who voted against autocephaly at the Council of Bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Kharkov in 1992, and also voted that Metropolitan Philaret Denysenko be defrocked)? Philaret wants it, the Ukrainian government wants it, so why not just disregard the rest of the bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church? The Moscow Patriarchate obviously did not wield its power in the right direction. A mixed message comes out here, which makes things even harder to understand.

Of course the Ukrainian Orthodox Autocephalous Church would not have joined this missed chance for a new Autocephalous Church, but no matter. Wait, what is the Ukrainian Orthodox Autocephalous Church? You can read more about that here (but only if you have a strong nervous system and do not suffer from stress-induced migraines, in which case stop here and go no further), but we will explain briefly that in 1920, there was an assembly of Ukrainian Orthodox clergy and laity in Kiev that declared the establishment of an independent Church in Ukraine. The only problem was that no other Ukrainian hierarchs were willing to participate in this venture, and so this assembly came up with a creative solution. In 1921 a group of clergy and laymen together “consecrated” Archpriest Vasyl Lypkivskyj as a bishop, enthroning him as Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine. Since none of these clergy were bishops, and a bishop can only be consecrated by two or more other bishops, this new organization was not recognized by any other canonical Orthodox Church. He consequently “consecrated” other bishops for Ukraine and dioceses of the UAOC formed in Canada and the United States by Ukrainian nationalists and converts from Ukrainian Catholicism. And that is how the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA came into being. There is also, by the way, a Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada (about whom you can read more here) that resulted from this congregation.

As I said, the UOAC would probably not have joined this autocephalous Church because they supposedly already had an autocephalous Church—but unlike its daughter churches in the USA and Canada, it is not under the Constantinople Patriarchate (I warned you that it will make your head spin). Now, why didn’t the Moscow Patriarch grant autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church now headed by Metropolitan Onuphry? Well, perhaps because they didn’t ask for it. And to whom does the Patriarch of Constantinople want to grant autocephaly? He makes no mention of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church headed by Metropolitan Onuphry. This Church, the majority, canonical Church, doesn’t exist for him?

3. The Moscow Patriarchate is expansionist. We are to understand this to mean that Constantinople now considers Ukraine to always have been their canonical territory, and it is the Moscow Patriarchate who moved in, and not the EP. You really have to struggle with your own common sense and knowledge of both history and reality on the ground in order to placidly nod your head at this (unless of course you are in the Kiev Patriarchate or the UOAC). “As far as we know, no other act changing the canonical state of Kiev or revision of the condition to commemorate Constantinople has ever occurred; nor of course has there been any such change on the part of the Mother Church ceding Kiev completely to Russia.”This is as far as they know. After five hundred years of Church history in Russia and Ukraine, the Constantinople Church is now checking back to see if in fact they ever really did entrust the Ukrainians to Moscow for the long term, during a time of intense pressure involving outright persecution by the Polish government on the Ukrainians to accept the Brest Union that subjected them to the Pope of Rome. And even if they did, it wasn’t fair, because of course what could they have done? Constantinople was under the Turkish Yoke. Now the Turkish Yoke is over, and so let’s set things straight again. From Istanbul.

4. The canons state that only the Ecumenical Patriarch has the right to grant autocephaly. Anyone in the OCA (Orthodox Church of America) knows that. The OCA is still not recognized by the Patriarchate of Constantinople as an autocephalous Church, because that autocephaly was granted by the Moscow Patriarchate, from whence it came, and which they called their “Mother Church”. Now this is a conundrum, which brings us back to point 2. The Moscow Patriarchate should have solved the problem in Ukraine, presumably by granting autocephaly to the Church in Ukraine, but they completely flubbed it. Only, the Patriarchate of Constantinople is claiming that only it has the canonical right to grant autocephaly, so Moscow couldn’t have granted it anyway? It gets more and more confusing.

5. Because the Ecumenical Councils were held in Byzantium, the “beginning of the Church is the Ecumenical Patriarchate.” Jerusalem, where the Holy Spirit came down in tongues of fire to the disciples on Pentecost—a feast that is often called the “birthday of the Church”—or Antioch, where the disciples were first called Christians (Acts 11:26), were not the beginning of the Church.

6. Those who are opposed to the EP’s activities (oblique reference to the Council of Crete which the Moscow Patriarchate and some other Local Churches did not attend) do not love the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Anyone who does not love the Ecumenical Patriarchate, does not love the Orthodox Church. Ergo: The Moscow Patriarchate and those other Local Churches that did not attend the Council of Crete do not love the Orthodox Church. The Ukrainian nationalists love the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and therefore they love the Orthodox Church. So why not grant them autocephaly?

7. The biggest problem of the millenium is jurisdictions. Only the Ecumenical Patriarch can decide whose jurisdiction is who’s, and anything else is ethnophyletism. Thus, only the Ecumenical Patriarchate can satisify the demands of Ukrainian nationalists for a Ukrainian nationalist Church, which would by definition exclude all non-Ukrainians, and include all Ukrainians whether they want it or not. This is the only solution to the problem of ethnophyletism and the pride of the power-hungry.

Any reaction from the Moscow Patriarchate about these and other statements has been rather reserved. Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev), the head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department of External Church Relations, who is the main spokesman for the Moscow Patriarch on the issue, stated to reporters from Rossiya-24 television channel:

In this particular case, we should certainly understand that the incumbent Ukrainian authorities have half a year before the next elections, there have been no real successes, the economic situation is grave, the political situation is extremely unstable, the people’s discontent is growing, and they need some loud success to elevate their ratings. And so they decided to bring to an end the project that the schismatics started quarter a century ago and didn’t succeed. [He is referring to the events surrounding the Council of Kharkov, at which Philaret Denysenko was defrocked by the hierarchs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and his declaration of himself as the “Patriarch” of the “Kyiv Patriarchate”, supported by the new Ukrainian government after its break from the Soviet Union.—OC]. Political authorities often meddle in ecclesiastical affairs, which often harms the Church.

If, God forbid, the things develop this way, of which some are dreaming […], that is, if a tomos is granted and autocephaly is declared, this means most of the church people won’t accept this autocephaly—perhaps a bunch of schismatics would accept it, which would legitimate a schism. This would deal a serious blow to Orthodoxy in Ukraine. In fact, this would produce another schism, and what is most important, this would split the entire body of global Orthodoxy.1

In other Russian media, Metropolitan Hilarion assessed the Ukrainian press’s rejoicing over the tomos, which was not granted as they expected on the anniversary of the Baptism of Rus’, but will “certainly be coming this month”, as “wishful thinking”.

What is the “body of global Orthodoxy” that Metr. Hilarion says would be split? We have to read the statements made by heads of Local Churches to really understand the full impact:

>Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem: “The unity of the Church is a gift of the Holy Spirit, and we are called to preserve and strengthen it. The destruction of this unity is a serious crime.”

“We condemn in the most categorical terms those who are committing actions directed against the parishes of the canonical Orthodox Church in the Ukraine. Not in vain do the holy fathers remind us that the violation of the Church’s unity is the gravest sin.

Archbishop Theodosius of Sebastia of the Jerusalem Patriarchate: “The Orthodox Churches of the world, including Jerusalem, only recognize the authority of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, that it is headed by Metropolitan Onuphry; he is a member of the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. We support all efforts to end the schism in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church—the Church is a place of love, unity, and peace, and not hatred and schism.”

“The schism in Ukraine is very unfortunate, and I hope that the Patriarch of Constantinople and the other heads of the Orthodox Churches of the world will coordinate with the Russian Orthodox Church to advance initiatives for ending this unhealthy, unacceptable, and unjustified situation.”

Patriarch Theodoros II of Alexandria and All Africa: “Let us pray to God, Who does all for our good, that He would instruct us all for a solution to these problems. If the schismatic Denisenko [the self-proclaimed “patriarch” of the schismatic “Kiev Patriarchate”—O.C.] wants to return to the bosom of the Church, then he must turn to where he left from. That which has fallen away must return to where it fell from. God is merciful to those who repent, and the Church forgives and receives in its motherly embrace all who repent.”

Patriarch John X of Antioch and All the East: “The Antiochian Church stands together with the Russian Church, speaking against the Church schism in Ukraine.”

Patriarch Ilya of Georgia: “His Beatitude disagrees with the initiative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate concerning Ukraine, as he recognizes only the legitimate Church headed by Metropolitan Onuphry.”

Patriarch Irenej of Serbia: Referring to the Ukraine, the patriarch of Serbia characterizes as “very perilous or even catastrophic, probably as fatal for the unity of Holy Orthodoxy”, the act “of exonerating and of restoring schismatics to the rank of bishops, especially the arch-schismatic ones, such as ‘patriarch’ Filaret Denysenko of Kyiv, and of bringing schismatics back into liturgical and canonical communion, without their repentance and their return to the unity of the Russian Orthodox Church from which they detached themselves. And all without the consent of the Moscow Patriarchate and without coordination with him.”

Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church: “[T]he Assembly expresses full solidarity, in co-suffering brotherly love, with the martyred sister Church in Ukraine, exposed to the harshest persecution by the current regime in Kiev.”

Holy Synod of the Polish Orthodox Church: We express the clear position of the Polish Orthodox Church, namely that the ecclesiastical life of the canonical Orthodox Church should be based on the principles of dogma and the holy canons of the Orthodox Church. Violation of this principle leads to chaos in the life of the Church.

“There are certain schismatic groups in Ukraine which must first repent and return to the canonical Church. Only then can we discuss the issue of providing autocephaly.

“We must not be led by the political climate in questions of dogma and the canons.”

Met. Rostislav of Czech Lands and Slovakia: “A schism, caused by man’s egotism, can be healed only through repentance and returning to the Church,” the primate noted. “The new autocephaly must be the result of a consensus.”

Patriarch Neofit of Bulgaria: I have always had a very good relationship with His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry [head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church—MP.—O.C.]. We know that he loves the Ukrainian people and humbly labors for the good of Ukraine and all Orthodox Christians. We will be praying that the Lord grant him health and strength to successfully bear the obedience he was given by the Lord, and which he bears with dignity.”

And from another source: “His Holiness said that the relevant issues had been repeatedly discussed at sessions of the Holy Synod of the BOC and he had repeatedly stated his position on the matter.

“General Secretary of the Holy Synod Bishop Gerasim of Melnik stressed that the Bulgarian Orthodox Church is well acquainted with the Ukrainian situation and its complexity, but it is necessary to strictly observe the ecclesiastical canons, which the Orthodox Church has been following for many centuries.”

Metr. Gabriel of Lovech, Bulgarian Orthodox Church: “There is no grace of God in schism. And without the grace of God there can be no Church. People must return to the canonical Church, where there is the grace of God and where man can be saved. Schism is a very harmful and pernicious phenomenon.

“The basis of any split is pride. This is the only way—there can be no other, in my opinion.”

Metropolitan George of Kitros, Katerini, and Platamon, (Church of Greece): “The Greek Orthodox Church and all other Orthodox Churches of the world recognize only one canonical Church of Ukraine—the Ukrainian Orthodox Church headed by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry.”

Metr. Athanasios of Limassol (Church of Cyprus): “First and foremost, this question should be resolved by the Patriarch of Moscow, in whose jurisdiction the Ukrainian Church is located, then—the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and then all the Orthodox Churches under the chairmanship of the Ecumenical Patriarchate,” Met. Anathasios stated.

“But first of all, the first word is for the Mother Church of the Ukrainian Church, which is the Moscow Patriarchate. To it belongs the first word in this process.

“What relationship does the Ecumenical Church have to the Philaret schism in Ukraine? How can it be overcome?

“We desire that our brothers who are in schism would return to the Church under the leadership of Metropolitan Onuphry—it is the sole canonical Church in Ukraine, having communion with the Moscow Patriarchate, and with all canonical Orthodox Churches… We pray for this.”

Statement of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia in Support of the Canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church: “With this statement, we express our complete support for His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry, together with his brother-archpastors, clergy, monastics and the faithful flock of the sole canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and with love we bow before their confessor-like struggles. No alteration to the life of the Church can be initiated or imposed upon her by secular authorities. The present attempts to influence the life of the Church from the outside reveal only the fundamentally non-ecclesial motives and goals of those attempting to implement them.”

Does this look global enough? The statements made by these primates and representatives of eleven Local Orthodox Churches are unanimous and unambiguous. With such a cloud of witnesses, we are left breathless when we ponder the possibility that the Ecumenical Patriarch really might go ahead and do what President Petro Poroshenko is asking of him. Besides the obvious fact of everyone’s inherent respect for the Ecumenical Patriarchate, we have to wonder why there has not been a stronger reaction to this procedure. We can only offer the following possible reasons (from our own mind, of course):

  • No one wants to be accused of not loving the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
  • People are afraid of Ukrainian nationalists.
  • People feel sorry for Petro Poroshenko.
  • People feel sorry for the Ecumenical Patriarchate, like one would for his own father who everyone knows is “on the wane”, but nevertheless still demands obedience, even though his decisions are less than sound. However he is the only one who doesn’t seem to know that, and so no one knows what to do.
  • People feel sorry for the Ecumenical Patriarchate, because he is living in nostalgia of past grandeur amidst the harsh reality of modern Turkey.
  • People don’t believe that the Ecumenical Patriarchate will really go through with this, and that he is only being polite to the Ukrainian president.
  • People don’t want to talk openly about the Ecumenical Patriarch’s connections with the U.S. government, which is possibly pressuring him to take this fatal step. The forces behind the Maidan revolution would like to see a complete and final separation of Ukrainians from Russians, in both body and soul.
False patriarch Philaret Denysenko.

False patriarch Philaret Denysenko.

Meanwhile, churches in Ukraine that have always belonged to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (which has by far the most adherents) are being seized and burned. Clergymen of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are being physically attacked for their “lack of patriotism”. Is that sort of violence a good recommendation for the religiosity of the perpetrators? What kind of church would these people form? Here is one example of a staunch member of the “Kyiv Patriarchate”, advisor to President Petro Poroshenko, Yuri Birykov: “I am truly an atheist. But an atheist, of course, of the Kyiv Patriarchate.2

And Philaret Denysenko made no bones about the fact that as soon as his “church” is legitimized, he will take over the two most revered monasteries of Ukraine, the Kiev Caves Lavra and the Pochaev Lavra, whether the monks like it or not. And if the government backs him, he can do it, but it would inevitably cause a great tragedy to unfold as believers struggle to defend their sacred sites.

Moreover the Western press most often gets the whole thing all wrong. The National Catholic Reporter, for example, writes3 on the Ukraine subject:

Although Bartholomew is the spiritual leader of all Orthodox believers, his own church in Turkey and parts of Greece is small and poor. The Russian church, whose canonical territory covers the whole area of the former Soviet Union, is by far the largest and richest in the Orthodox world.

Moscow has influence on Constantinople… If the Ukrainian church is recognized, Moscow can break away from Constantinople and proclaim itself the new center of Orthodox Christianity.

Why does the Vatican have such a morbid interest in the outcome of this crisis? Because there is a third, shadowy figure that is also rallying against the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church: The Greek Catholic (Uniate) church in Ukraine.

Of course we all know that the Patriarch of Constantinople is not the spiritual leader of the Orthodox believers in the sense that the Pope of Rome is the spiritual leader of Catholic believers. Therefore, any fear of Moscow “breaking away from Constantinople” and proclaiming itself the new center of Orthodox Christianity makes no sense to anyone with a basic understanding of the ecclesiology of the Orthodox Church. We can love the Ecumenical Patriarch and respectfully disagree with him at the same time. And this disagreement does not cancel our Orthodoxy, as the statements by heads of Local Orthodox Churches show.

May these respected hierarchs never cease their prayers for all of us, and for the resolution of this crisis without violence to the body of the faithful. And may Church canons be used to bring peace, and not to get revenge against political enemies.

Monomakhos

FOOTNOTES

[1] Translation from Interfax-Religion: http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=14439.

[2] https://sharij.net/125642

[3] https://www.ncronline.org/news/world/ukrainian-orthodox-switch-allegiance-moscow-kiev-linked-churches

Monomakhos

Comments

  1. Bartholomew has sent his legates to Ukraine to prepare the tomos of autocephaly. He is now a bonafide heretic—-a new Metaxakis. He has cast himself into schism and the ensuing bloodshed in Ukraine will be on his hands. Virtually every other Patriachate wrote letters advising him not to do this (many in very strong words). It was a lose-lose scenario for him to grant autocephaly, and yet he did it anyway. I would like to chalk this up to severe dementia….but I don’t believe he has dementia. He will go down in history as the worst EP…..even surpassing Metaxakis of thrice wretched memory. This will cause a schism that will shake the foundations of Orthodoxy.

    Perhaps he will unite with the Roman Catholics soon?

    The clergy under the EP who are loyal to Holy Orthodoxy, will now have to transition to a legitimate Orthodox jurisdiction.

    Lord have mercy!

    • George Michalopulos says

      Well, at least we won’t be able to say that we didn’t warn him.

      Lord have mercy.

    • Tim R. Mortiss says

      Someone please explain to this poor benighted ex-Protestant why a mistaken tomos of autocephaly to the Ukrainian church could cause war and bloodshed?
      I am being left far behind in Monomakhos with these unfathomable paranoid scenarios.

      On the other hand, war and bloodshed seems to be the stock in trade of eastern European revanchists, for centuries.

      • The problem is that the Ukraine is a fiction born out of repeated attempts by Western aggression to destroy or marginalize Russia going back hundreds of years. Scratch the surface and you would be hard pressed to define what a Ukrainian is. For example,, I am a Lemko but we get labeled Ukrainians which we are not and it’s insulting. Couple that with actice repression in the Ukraine and imposition of a pseudo identity and you can star to see where things can get messy fast.

        This is more likely tied up with the same people behind 20 yrs of NATO encroachment and the so called Arab Spring.

        • Joseph Lipper says

          dan,

          Sometimes when I scratch the surface, I am hard pressed to define what an “American” is.

        • Johann Sebastian says

          I too am a Lemko, and I feel exactly the same way as Dan.

          My perspective though (and I don’t want to put words in Dan’s mouth as he may not share this view) is that “Russian” is a very general term that shouldn’t be confused with the Russian Federation. The Russian people are the people of Rus’. That means Great Russians, Belorusians, Ukrainians, and Rusyns are all Russians.

          Are not the speakers of Mandarin and Cantonese both Chinese, despite the greater degree of mutual unintelligibility between their languages than those of the Russian people?

          Are Neapolitans and Venetians both Italian?

          Are Punjabis and Gujaratis both Indian?

          Are Cebuanos and Tagalogs both Filipino?

          Are Minangkabaw and Balinese both Indonesian?

          And aren’t Austrians and Germans, despite belonging to separate nation-states, both German from an ethnolinguistic standpoint?

          • George Michalopulos says

            Very good point, JS.

            This reminds me of a story which Vladyka Dmitri of thrice-blessed memory told us as we were beginning our mission. The bishop who ordained him (Bogdan) was a proud Ukrainian who thought that not only were Ukrainians the cat’s pajamas but that people from the Western Ukraine were the best of all. Needless to say, he couldn’t stand Russians. Anyway, when he assigned him to the newly-created St Seraphim of Sarov parish in Dallas, he told him privately to “get rid of all the Russians” there. Now Dmitri Royster was a good old boy from East Texas, he couldn’t tell a Ukie apart from a Russkie if his life depended upon it.

            He had a good chuckle over that one.

    • http://www.pravmir.com/ecumenical-patriarchate-appoints-its-exarchs-in-kiev/

      So it begins. Hard to see how this ends other than schism. Moscow just can’t let the Phanar steal a sizeable part of its canonical territory. I suspect soon the gloves will come off in the ROC.

      • Archpriest Alexander F. C. Webster says

        Yesterday, September 7th, Two-Thousand-Eighteen, a date which will live in infamy, . . .

        • George Michalopulos says

          Indeed.

          To all: the more I think about it, the more shocked I am by the implications of it all. Think of it: not only is the EP acting in a unilateral fashion; i.e. with 12 Orthodox Churches speaking vociferously against this action (with the other 2 Churches strangely silent), but he is recognizing an uncanonical sect which not one of the 14 Orthodox Church (and the OCA) recognize.

          If this is allowed to stand, what is going to make this EP –or a future one–recognize any other sect which appends the term “Orthodox” to its name? This, and given the scandalous assertion of the Cretan Robber Council, solidifies Eastern Popery and takes us further down the road to heresy.

          • Joseph Lipper says

            Acting in a unilateral fashion…isn’t that what St. Mark of Ephesus did?

          • Gregg Gerasimon says

            Exactly. The battle lines are becoming more and more clear, aren’t they?

            Strong leaders, in addition to having a high level of emotional maturity and emotional health, always get buy-in for their policy changes and effectively manage all stakeholders in whatever situation they are dealing with. They lead in a conciliar manner. The EP has done none of this. Its terrible “leadership” is instead a “my way or the highway” approach, which is no leadership at all.

            As someone who was baptized into the GOA more than 4 decades ago, even though I haven’t been a member of a GOA parish for quite a while, this is indeed a sad day.

            Once again the church in Istanbul is going into lands outside of its jurisdiction and deliberately creating division. Not exactly the work of the Holy Spirit, is it?

            The church in Istanbul is isolating itself from the rest of the Orthodox in the world. I pity those who feel “stuck” in its American jurisdictions.

            Gregg Gerasimon MD
            San Antonio, Texas

      • Joseph Lipper says

        Pope Francis has already hinted at a political “unia” with Patriarch Kirill. This is evident in his address to the Russian Patriarch from last May 30th where the Pope says:

        “the Catholic Churches, must not interfere in the internal affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church, nor in political matters. This is my stance, and the stance of the Holy See today. And those who meddle do not obey the Holy See. That is for politics.”

        https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2018/may/documents/papa-francesco_20180530_patriarcato-mosca.html

        There is no doubt that an Ukranian autocephaly will result in many Ukranian Greek Catholic parishes becoming Orthodox, reversing the unia that Rome forced many years ago.

        • Vladimir Lozovy (Kiev) says

          But as soon as the leader of Ukrainian uniates Shevchuk made a visit to the Pope, Francesco immediately declared: “We can not detain the interests of our uniate brothers for the sake of agreements with Moscow.”

          • George Michalopulos says

            Not mutually exclusive, Vladimir. Pope Francis may believe that the only way to “save” the Unia at this point is to marginalize the erstwhile Kiev patriarchate; i.e. to strangle it in its cradle.

        • Johann Sebastian says

          I gave that idea some thought, but ultimately I think it’s wishful thinking.

          If a reversal of the Unia results, I think we all have underestimated Bart and may have to backtrack quite a bit.

          Let’s not get our hopes up. There’s a track record it seems that can’t be ignored.

          • Joseph Lipper says

            It would seem that Moscow is the main obstacle in reversing the “Unia” of the Ukrainian Greek Catholics. The Uniates don’t want to be under Moscow, but that is the only canonical option they are given. They want Orthodoxy, but not under Moscow. They don’t want to be under an abusive mother. It seems fair enough, but how do you solve that?

            Moscow is not solving it, and she probably isn’t able to. If Moscow is the real “Mother Church” of Ukraine, then she needs to show for it. If she can’t be a mother, fine, then she needs to step aside and let somebody else do it.

            Admittedly, the EP’s legal claim as the “Mother Church” to the Ukraine becomes somewhat tenuous, and I think the EP would even admit as much. However, the EP is making the point that Moscow has shown herself incapable of resolving the situation. The “baby” is dying on the floor, and the EP is stepping in to do something about it. And all Moscow is doing is threatening schism and war, which is exactly what abusive mothers do.

            • George Michalopulos says

              Joseph, you bring up some excellent points. If I may delve into the one at hand, that is that the Uniates want to come back to Orthodoxy but can’t/won’t do it under Moscow because of history, I’m not sure I’m buying it. I realize that that’s a major talking point but when it comes to actually pinpointing a time or place where Moscow (under the tsars of course) was supposedly “abusive”, the actual history becomes rather vague. It’s a lot like the victimology that’s peddled by professional grievance groups (think “community organizers”). In other words they grow in the telling.

              Still, if that’s the perception, then that is the perception and it won’t be eradicated anytime soon.

              Your last sentence is startling however. The “baby” is most definitely not “dying on the floor”. The canonical Ukrainian Church is alive and thriving (there are autocephalous churches in Albania, Poland and Czechoslovakia that would love to have 12,000 churches within their respective patriarchates).

              In your third paragraph, I ask you to do this thought experiment: substitute “Moscow” for “Constantinople” and “Ukraine” for “Turkey” and see if that would fly. The EP is located in the premier city of a secular –albeit Islamifying–republic. A great many of those who identify as Turks today are descended from Byzantines. Don’t they deserve to have the Gospel preached to them?

              As to your earlier comment, that the EP “has nothing to gain” therefore he must be acting in good faith, I pray that you are correct. Sadly, I don’t believe that you are. One thing we must understand about ruling classes is that after several generations they become inbred, whether genetically or intellectually and the genuinely cannot entertain novel thoughts. They literally cannot think out of the box. We see this for example in our own political class here in the US where they still can’t come to grips with the fact that an boorish billionaire from Queens who never ran for office became president.

              When it comes to the Phanar, they still believe their press releases. For them the Church is a Byzantine nostalgia cult and Constantine XI Paleologos is going to ride up to the city gates on his white steed and take back the city. They certainly can’t come to grips with the fact that the Slavic Churches are equal in dignity. Because of this arrogance, it doesn’t strike me as strange at all that the EP is going down this brazen path which will demolish his prestige. You see that it is a dangerous path; I can see it as well; truth be told, a blind man can see it. But nobody within the Phanar can see it.

              When viewed in this light, then the EP’s actions make sense: he simply doesn’t think that there are any consequences to his actions, no matter how egregious. Because in the phanariote mindset, he hasn’t made any mistakes. Any mistakes that have happened are the fault of somebody else: Arb Demetrios, Elder Ephraim, whoever. And let’s not forget, there’s a track record of failure here: getting rid of Iakovos; dividing up the US and creating “metropolises” which are then staffed with mediocrities; the destruction of whatever goodwill was engendered at Ligonier; the implosion of the GOA; the St Nicholas Shrine; etc.

              • Joseph Lipper says

                George,

                We have Eastern Ukraine that is mostly MP and pro-Russian separatists, and then we have Western Ukraine that is mostly sick of Russia. When I write about the “baby” dying on the floor, I am referring mostly to Western Ukraine and the Christians there who are sick of what they perceive as a domineering and abusive Russia disguised as Orthodox clergy. Many of them have left the Moscow Patriarchate because they are sick and tired of hearing pro-Moscow political sermons in Church. They are not going to be Orthodox under Moscow. That’s the “baby” dying on the floor, and the only thing Moscow is doing about it is threatening schism and war.

                The pro-Russian separatists and the UOC-MP parishes are the ones playing the victim card here. Why don’t they show some love of country? I think it’s because they either don’t want to be Ukrainian, or they are afraid of Moscow. I’m assuming they all pray for the government of Poroshenko in the Divine Liturgy, right?

                • Johann Sebastian says

                  Please, Mr. Kipper. You clearly don’t know anything about how Unia came about.

                  The only abusive relationship there is that the Uniate clergy insist upon preserving a structure that was imposed upon an Orthodox people when Ruthenia (Little Russia) was occupied by Catholic Poland and Austria-Hungary. Orthodoxy effectively became illegal. The union of the Ruthenian Orthodox with the Church of Rome was essentially a 16th/17th century precursor to the Sergian collaboration with the Stalinist regime in the 1940s.

                  The situation here is more like an abusive mother (Kiev–yes you read that right, from a historical more than ecclesiological standpoint) disowning her daughter (Moscow) because she’s delisionally infatuated with an abusive boyfriend (Poland/the West).

                  BTW, all of my Lemko relatives were Uniates in the old country. We know that they called themselves Orthodox. My grandfather was baptised in the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church but there is no record of him ever having been received into the Orthodox Church. He constantly complained about the Catholics and rests at Jordanville.

                  My Orthodox relatives aren’t very well catechized. They’re astonished to know that such a thing as a “Byzantine Rite” Catholic Church exists. To them, an onion dome and a three-bar cross make a church Orthodox.

                  Sort of tells you what Unia was designed to do in a nutshell, in plain language.

  2. What a sad day. As a lifelong member of the GOA who was baptized in a GOA parish, I now watch my Ecumenical Patriarch go into schism against the rest of world Orthodoxy!

    ANAXIOS, Bartholomew! ANAXIOS, ANAXIOS! Blood will be on your treacherous hands!

    Tomorrow our family will celebrate the Feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos at our local OCA parish, and wipe the dust from our feet from the GOA, led by the schismatic and heretic Bartholomew. Shame on you!!

  3. I’m not happy with Patriarch Bartholomew, but my priest at the ACROD parish I go to is wonderful and has been there for me and my family through many hard times.

  4. Joseph Lipper says

    Although granting autocephaly to the “Kievan Patriarchate” doesn’t seem wise and possibly could be used to promote war in the Ukraine, I don’t really see how this would make the Ecumenical Patriarch heretical. The EP is not promoting a papal dogma like Rome. Granting autocephaly is a normal action of the Ecumenical Patriarch, and none of the other Patriarchates would be forced by the EP to recognize it. The EP is not making threats to break communion with anyone over this.

    The autocephaly of the OCA is mostly ignored in America by the other Orthodox churches, why should the situation in the Ukraine be any different? Did Moscow even consult with the other Patriarchates when the OCA was granted autocephaly? No.

    Patriarch Kirill has an opportunity right now to make a compromise with the EP. It’s entirely possible an agreement will be made, and the Moscow Patriarchate will retain canonical rights to keep a majority presence in the Ukraine. The Moscow Patriarchate still has a presence in the US, why shouldn’t they in Ukraine?

    • Archpriest Alexander F. C. Webster says

      RE: “It’s entirely possible an agreement will be made, and the Moscow Patriarchate will retain canonical rights to keep a majority presence in the Ukraine.”

      Now there’s a brilliant idea: cut the baby in half and give one part to the Russian Orthodox Church and the other to the schismatics in Ukraine!

      However, King Solomon, as we know, did not intend to do what he proposed to the contending “mothers” to determine who was the true mother of the child.

    • Did you read the heretical statements spewed forth from Bartholomew? He fancies himself an Eastern Pope! I’m fairly certain that most of the absurdities were written by his top “theologian” the heretic John of Pergamon. The absolute tragic part of this is the bloodshed that will result in Ukraine. Otherwise, it is a good thing to see these heretics come out of the gray area so that everyone can see their true colors…..and run as far away as possible from these imposters. These heretics called a robber council…..are pushing for deaconesses……are allowing priests to marry twice……are calumniating traditional-minded Orthodox Christians as “fundamentalists”………offering uncanonical autocephaly………and claiming papal-like supremacy. They are post-patristic heretics who have finally laid their cards on the table. Anathema!
      Now we will watch as Jesus Christ sends another St Mark of Ephesus.

      • I agree with you almost 100% but you also show what happens when extremism( not you but all round) ( as with uk Brexit) hits the table all round .

        Deaconess ‘ are PERFECTLY ORTHODOX and no less a person than St Nektarios has written service for them. They were for refounding by 1918 Moscow Council. They have nothing to do with modern priestess syndrome. ENTIRELY NOTHING.
        While we are here can i mention the entirely westernized greek american worship and priestly appearance. Yr services are devoid of Orthodox spirituality as u sit unmoving, almost Uncrossing in yr rigid chairs listening to the choral organ cacophony. U wonder why the young walk away to the real western mcoy or to spend more time shopping. Granted there has been fight back of late and I know some good parishes, Buffalo, Bay ride NY and Paulos Heights Illinois . Let us save what we can.

        • Tim R. Mortiss says

          Our GOA priest is a beacon of Orthodoxy; in appearance, too: bearded and always in cassock at all times in public. The old electric harmonium organ was pulled out of our church 30 years ago.

          True, we have pews; as do the Antiochians…..

          • Wow, all one needs to be beacon of Orthodoxy is wear a cassock and have a beard. History clearly shows there are many with beards and cassocks who were far from the kingdom. God looks upon the heart of man.

            • Joseph Lipper says

              A woman once told me she didn’t trust men with beards because she felt they were hiding something. I replied that men who shave are the ones hiding something, hiding their beards!

      • Mikail- have you read John of Pergamon? His ecclesiology argues explicitly against the kind of universal structure that the Papacy or this newly indispensable EP represent. I can’t imagine Metropolitan John is comfortable with the language of “the EP is the beginning of the orthodox church.” Whoever is behind it, it’s not him.

    • Mr. Lipper, to my mind heresy is a rejection of a doctrine the Church considers true, authentic and necessary. One such doctrine is our Lord’s desire that we be one body and faith. It is a breach of that doctrine to promote positions that break that unity. The EP breaks that unity by ignoring the public positions of 12 of his 14 “equals” to promote a position that only aggrandizes himself. So Bartholomeow has made himself both a schismatic and heretic. In my humble opinion.

      • Joseph Lipper says

        Michael,

        Who is threatening to break communion? The EP is not.

        • He is forcing himself in schism.

        • You are right the EP is not just threatening. He has already broken communion by engaging with heretics and schismatics over the canonical Church in the Ukraine. Bartholomew has gone into schism. Although Out family is part of the 3% of world Orthodoxy technically in his jurisdiction, we are on our way out and moving to the OCA. Enough is enough. Shame on the heretic and schismatic Bartholomew. If he does not repent of his schism may the true hierarchs depose him soon!

        • George Michalopulos says

          Technically true. But the same could have been said of Rome in 1054. We didn’t want to go into schism, but there was no choice.

          • Joseph Lipper says

            On July 16, year 1054, Cardinal Humbert, legate of Pope Leo IX, marched into Hagia Sophia and placed a Papal Bull of Excommunication against the Patriarch of Constantinople, Michael Cerularius.

            This Papal Bull accused the Patriarch of Constantinople of the following four grievances worthy of his excommunication: simony, rebaptizing Latins, allowing priests to marry, and removing the “Filioque” from the Nicene Creed.

            • George Michalopulos says

              Yes. Isn’t that my point? How could we in good conscience remain with a patriarchate that was heretical? To communicate with priests from that church would put us in heresy as well, would it not?

              • Joseph Lipper says

                Well, I don’t think any of the reasons that Rome had for excommunicating the Patriarch of Constantinople were good ones. They seem pretty ridiculous, actually.

                • George Michalopulos says

                  Well, yes. What’s so different about Rome then and Istanbul today? The EP’s self-understanding of its role as the font and origin of Orthodoxy is just as heretical as Rome’s was then. Otherwise, Rome would have never consented to forcing the filioque onto the Church without an Ecumenical Council.

  5. I am hardly a shill for the EP…

    But, let it be said that simply because a majority of voices from other national Churches and Patriarchates have spoken against this does not make them correct. Their number may compel us to be concerned, to learn and know more, but in the end this is a question that can only be answered by a careful study of history, original texts most haven’t studied, and written in languages most people don’t know.

    This is canonical question, based on the study and science of the Holy Canons. We need to see the detailed argumentation and the historical documents that the EP is using to validate their actions.

    The EP’s actions may be unwise, they may show a lack of discernment, but they also may be legal.

    • “Unwise” is a gross understatement, GOA Priest. Pope Bartholomew has jumped off the deep end into the abyss of heresy. I would normally be happy that the heretical actions of
      the EP have finally come to light. But I am deeply saddened by the probable bloodshed that will ensue in Ukraine.

  6. Francis Frost says

    George:

    The nearly hysterical article by the Nun Cornelia demonstrates that the MP is in full panic mode, and with good reason. Despite your opinion, the MP actually has few real options.

    First, their canonical claims do not hold water. The Moscow Patriarchate, itself, unilaterally declared its autocephaly, without the permission nor the endorsement of its own ‘Mother Church”. The MP’s autocephaly was not ratified by any ecumenical or local council of the universal church. The MP’s autocephaly was only ‘recognized’ by the Ecumenical Patriarch some 150 years after the fact, and not without a large payout of baksheesh. The MP’s territory as defined in that document clearly did not include Ukraine. The incorporation of the Kievan Metropolitanate into the MP in 1686 was again only belatedly recognized by the EP under durress. Even that document, allowing the MP to ordain the Metropolitan of Kiev, still required the Metropolitan of Kiev to commemorate the Ecumenical Patriarch as his primate. In effect, the EP never ceded jurisdiction over Ukraine. As such the EP, does still retain the right to grant autocephalous to the churches in Ukraine, despite Moscow’s petulance. Indeed, no Patriarch other than the Ecumenical Patriarch has ever granted autocephaly, which is why the OCA’s autocephaly remains an unresolved issue.

    Secondly, the MP is in no position to take a stand on the Sacred canons since the MP has itself, flagrantly and persistently defied those canons. The MP has uncanonically occupied 2 entire dioceses of the Georgian Orthodox Patrriarchate; dioceses that were seized though violence with he murder and expulsion of the legitimate Orthodox clergy. The MP created, funded and staffed the schismatic “Abkhaz Eparchy” on the ruins of the canonical Orthodox diocese of Pichvinta-Tskhum (Abkhazeti). The MP received into its ranks the renegade Archimandrite Visarrion Apliaa , without a canonical release from the Georgian Orthodox Patriarch or his diocese bishop. This same Vissarion Apliaa personally led the Russian military forces who expelled at gunpoint the last canonical clergy and monastic from Gali and Kodori (eastern Abkhazeti) after the 2008 war. During the August 2008 war, the Russian bishops Panteleimon of Adyghea and Feofan of Saratov along with other MP clergy accompanied the invasion forces into the canonical territory of the Georgian Orthodox Patriarchate and publicly “blessed” the weapons and forces that carried out deliberate attacks on civilian populations and that obliterated 15 entire towns and villages in occupied Samechablo (South Ossetia) On August 8 2008 the rockets blessed by bishop Feofan were used to attack the Ghvrtaeba Cathedral in Nikozi. On the next day, the Russians and Ossetains looted, desecrated a and burned the sanctuary of that ancient house of God. They did not spare even the sacred vessels nor the very Body of Christ on the Holy Table – but incinerated all.

    If the MP dares to invoke the Sacred Canons of the Orthodox church, then it will stand self condemned by its willful and repeated violations of those same canons.

    The MP is then left with a limited and difficult choice of actions. They might break communion, and cease commemoration fo the Ecumenical Patriarch, as they did in 1996 during the controversy over the Estonian Orthodox Church. In the end, that act had no lasting significance, and it had to be rescinded in a compromise leaving two churches in Estonia – one worshipping in Estonian and another in Slavonic. It is certainly possible that just such a compromise will be the outcome in Ukraine as well. The risk for the MP is that a larger number of its parishes many defect to the Ukrainian church, if it is recognized as canonical. At least one of the UOC-MP’s bishops has declared just such an intention. Already over 1/3 of the UOC-MP’s parishes and clergy have defected to one the schismatic churches. The MP claims these parishes have been ‘seized’; but the reality is that nearly all of them have defected of their own free will.

    George and Ms. Shephard have suggested that Russia will invade Ukraine to protect the MP’s interests. Well, perhaps; but there are good reasons to think not.

    First, the Russian military has some 63,000 troops actively deployed in Syria. Second, our valiant President Trump has actually provided lethal defensive systems to the Ukrainian military (prior administrations provided only freeze dried meals). Third, the Russian government is facing severe financial constraints due to its on-going recession. Due to that recession the Russian government’s cash reserves are long gone. Because of its massive military expenditures, the Russian government has not given its pensioners a cost of living raise in over 5 years, despite 15 % annual inflation. This summer, Mr Putin raised the retirement age by 5 years. As a result, 43% of Russian men will die before they collect any pension. This action caused the first widespread protests across Russia since the 2011 election. The Russian ruble has lost 20% of its value over the course of this year alone. In addition, Russia is increasingly isolated due to its flagrant violations of international law and norms. This week Great Britain, the U.S and the European Union agreed to a combined response to the Novichok poisonings in Salisbury. The suggested sanctions include bans on Russia’s access to the international banking system – a significant risk since nearly all of Russia’s wealth is held in off-shore banks.

    Our intrepid moderator likes to deride American power; but he noted that just the mention of sanctions nearly crippled the Turkish economy and collapsed the Turkish lira in a matter of days. Russia is even more vulnerable than Turkey since no-one needs Russia’s gas or oil anymore. The US is now exporting both oil and natural gas, while Russia’s production capacity has been declining for the past decade.

    Russia is suffering defeat externally and internally due to Mr. Putin’s lawless actions.

    St. Seraphim of Sarov wrote to Tsar Aleksandr I in 1811, the year that the Russians abolished the Georgian Patriarchate: “Georgia is the inheritance of the Most Holy Mother of God. Do not make war on Georgia. If you do make war on Georgia, God will make war on Russia, and Russia will be destroyed” That wise Tsar heeded St. Seraphim’s warning; but his heirs did not.

    The tsarist occupiers looted sacred treasures. They outlawed the Georgian language and Georgian liturgical chants. In the end Tsarist Russia was destroyed and the Georgian Patriarchate revived.

    On April 9, 1989 Gorbachov unleashed the Soviet tanks and troops on peaceful teenage protesters in Tbilisi – protesters against the proposed imposition of the Russian language on the Georgian state and its schools. Dozens of young people were killed; but the Soviet Empire collapsed within 2 years.

    Now Putin has again made war on Georgia, the sacred inheritance of the Theotokos. In 1992, St. Gabriel Urgebadze, the great confessor of Christ, the prophet and miracle worker prophesied: “If the Russians take Abkhazeti, the Most Holy Theotokos will never forgive them”.

    The outcome of Putin’s crime spree is clear. All that remains now is the final act, the denouement of this drama, “the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his deeds, eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor and immortality; but to those who are self seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness – indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish on every soul of man who does evil” Romans 2: 5 – 9

    • George Michalopulos says

      The only “hysteria” I see is in your writings, Francis. I’m especially amused by your recantation of canons which the MP supposedly violated. Conspicuous in your litany are the myriad of canons that the EP has violated (and not just on this issue).

      However, since we are talking past each other, I instead ask you this question: why if the MP is wrong, does the Georgian patriarchate (“GP”) agree with the MP in this particular regard?

      • George Michalopulos says

        In addition, you presume too much about the “lethality” of the weapons which our “heroic [and I agree with you here] President Trump” gave to the Ukrainians. In case you didn’t know, Trump values loyalty and he knows that the source of all this “Russian collusion” nonsense which is unnecessarily hobbling his otherwise magnificent tenure resides in Ukraine. Let’s just say that he is not too keen on the Kievan regime.

        That, and given the fact that we are seeing the slow-motion implosion of NATO (Turkey is going, Germany is looking wistfully at the exits while in the UK, the most popular baby boys’ name is “Mohammed”), makes me wonder about the long-term prospects of the present Ukrainian state remaining viable. I have a feeling that many of the NATO countries will find their dance cards full if things continue to spiral out of country.

        In fact, I’m not so sure that the Poles won’t soon discover a reason to press their irredentist claims on Lviv. This last fact should be of particular concern to Poroshenko.

        Notably absent from the various scenarios which I have described is the absolute decrepitude of the present Ukrainian state. According to the OECD, it has levels of corruption which rival most African countries.

        As for the 26,000 Russian soldiers which you state are stationed in Syria, they can be redeployed to Ukraine within a relatively short period of time. (In case y’all hadn’t heard, the Chinese* are getting ready to establish a significant presence in Syria, thereby freeing up the Russians to go home or elsewhere). The present Russian military doctrine is to preserve the neutrality of the “near-abroad” at all costs. (Ukraine and Byelorus constitute the “near-abroad”.)

        *Presently, the Chinese and the Russians are conducting “Vostok 2018”, the largest Russian war games since the fall of the Soviet Union. The idiotic sanctions which President Trump is being forced to go along with are not only pushing Turkey out of NATO and into Russia’s orbit but pushing Russian and China closer.

        • The MP has plenty of options since it does not take people like Francis or Sakaashvili seriously. The Phanar has taken on World Orthodoxy, counter to the explicit statements of 11 national churches. That fact alone gives the MP all the options it needs. And Francis assertion that the world no longer wants Russian oil is completely ludicrous, even deranged. If you recall, in Vietnam, the US supplied one side with lethal weapons and the Soviets the other. We also supplied troops, of course, until Congress pulled the plug. It is entirely possible that the Ukies have just gotten themselves into a war torn scenario where a shooting proxy war, along sectarian lines, will go on indefinitely, bankrupting and devastating the Ukraine while it provides American and Russian forces useful information about the efficacy of their weapons and tactics in a real conflict. All this to prop up the prestige of a dead see before a new Unia. Ukraine has belonged to the MP for over 300 years. No convenient revisionism can pass the laugh test. The other patriarchates have said as much. All the blood to be spilt is on Barthomews head.

          • George Michalopulos says

            In the final analysis I stand by my assertion: regardless of the canonical concerns, the Ukrainians must never forget that the EU is willing to fight to the last Ukrainian to get what it wants.

            A word to the wise.

    • Hello Francis,

      All your points about Georgia are valid. The Moscow Patriarchate, that is as heretic and ecumenistic as Bartholomew preaches the respect of the canons while trampling them. Generally, you suffer what you inflicted to other people

      But what are your sources regarding saint Seraphin of Sarov predicting the end of Russian due to the annexation of Georgia?

      Long live free Georgia ! Down with ecumenists of the Phanar and Moscow that are all the same.

      Thank you

  7. To those apologists for the EP: The Keivan Patriarchate is a schismatic group in communion with no one in the Church headed by a man defrocked for ecclesiastical and moral issues. The KP is a parasynogogue by definition. The vast majority of Ukrainian Orthodox are under the canonical Church in Ukraine, unquestioned as “THE” Church for hundreds of years, and you people have the nerve to even consider for a second BART’s Orthodoxy. Absolute rubbish. It’s obvious this is all politics and BART is being made to act by his handlers. The added bonus for him is also revenge for Russia upsetting the meeting in Crete.

    • George Michalopulos says

      Francis, since you’re such a canonist, could you please respond to Basil above? I’m confused.

  8. Johann Sebastian says

    The seat of the Patriarch of Kiev is in Moscow, just as the seat of the Patriarch of Antioch is in Damascus.

  9. Francis Frost says

    George:

    The nearly hysterical article by the Nun Cornelia demonstrates that the MP is in full panic mode, and with good reason. Despite your opinion, the MP actually has few real options.

    First, their canonical claims do not hold water. The Moscow Patriarchate, itself, unilaterally declared its autocephaly, without the permission nor the endorsement of its own ‘Mother Church”. The MP’s autocephaly was not ratified by any ecumenical or local council of the universal church. The MP’s autocephaly was only ‘recognized’ by the Ecumenical Patriarch some 150 years after the fact, and not without a large payout of baksheesh. The MP’s territory as defined in that document clearly did not include Ukraine. The incorporation of the Kievan Metropolitanate into the MP in 1686 was again only belatedly recognized by the EP under durress. Even that document allowing the MP to ordain the Metropolitan of Kiev, still required the Metropolitan of Kiev to commemorate the Ecumenical Patriarch as his primate. In effect, the EP never ceded jurisdiction over Ukraine. As such the EP, does still retain the right to grant autocephalous to the churches in Ukraine, despite Moscow’s petulance. Indeed, no Patriarch other than the Ecumenical Patriarch has ever granted autocephaly, which is why the OCA’s autocephaly remains an unresolved issue.

    Secondly, the MP is in no position to take a stand on the Sacred canons since the MP has itself, flagrantly and persistently defied those canons. Thee MP has uncanonically occupied 2 entered dioceses of the Georgian Orthodox Patrriarchate; diocese that were seized though violence with he murder and expulsion of the legitimate Orthodox clergy. The MP created, funded and staffed the schismatic “Abkhaz Eparchy” on the ruins of the canonical Orthodox diocese of Pichvinta-Tskhum (Abkhazeti). The MP received into its ranks the renegade Archimandrite Visarrion Apliaa , without a canonical release from the Georgian Orthodox Patriarch or his diocese bishop. This same Vissarion Apliaa personally led the Russian military forces who expelled at gunpoint the last canonical clergy and monastic from Gali and Kodori (eastern Abkhazeti) after the 2008 war. During the August 2008 war, the Russian bishops Panteleimon of Adyghea and Feofan of Saratov along with other MP clergy accompanied the invasion forces into the canonical territory of the Georgian Orthodox Patriarchate and publicly “blessed” the weapons and forces that carried out deliberate attacks on civilian populations and that 15 entire towns and villages in occupied Samechablo (South Ossetia) On August 8 2008 the rockets blessed by bishop Feofan were used to attack the Ghvrtaeba Cathedral in Nikozi. On the next day, the Russians and Ossetains looted, desecrated a and burned the sanctuary of that ancient house of God. They did not spare even the sacred vessels nor the very Body of Christ on the Holy Table – but incinerated all.

    If the MP dares to invoke the Sacred Canons of the Orthodox church, then they stand self condemned by their willful and repeated violations of those same canons.

    The MP is then left with a limited and difficult choice of actions. They might break communion, and cease commemoration fo the Ecumenical Patriarch, as they did in 1996 during the controversy over the Estonian Orthodox Church. In the end, that act had no lasting significance, and it had to be rescinded in a compromise leaving two churches in Estonia – one worshipping in Estonian and another in Slavonic. It is certainly possible that just such a compromise will be the outcome in Ukraine as well. The risk for the MP is that a larger number of its parishes many defect to the Ukrainian church, if it is recognized as canonical. At least one of the UOC-MP’s bishops has declared just such an intention. Already over 1/3 of the UOC-MP’s parishes and clergy have defected to one the schismatic churches. The MP claims these parishes have been ‘seized’; but the reality is that nearly all of them have defected of their own free will.

    George and Ms. Shephard have suggested that Russia will invade Ukraine to protect the MP’s interests. Well, perhaps; but there are good reasons to think not.

    First, the Russian military has some 63,000 troops actively deployed in Syria. Second, out valiant President Trump has actually provided lethal defensive systems to the Ukrainian military (prior administrations provided only freeze dried meals). Third, the Russian government is facing severe financial constraints due to its on-going recession. Due to recession the Russian government’s cash reserves are long gone Because its massive military expenditures, the Russian government has not given its pensioners a cost of living raise in over 5 years, despite 15 % annual inflation. This summer, Mr Putin raised the retirement age by 5 years. As a result, 43% of Russian men will die before they collect any pension. This action caused the first widespread protests across Russia since the 2011 election. The Russian ruble has lost 20% of its value over the course of this year alone. In addition, Russia is increasingly isolated due to its flagrant violations of international law and norms. This week Great Britain, the U.S and the European union agreed to a combined response to the Novichok poisonings in Salisbury. The suggested sanctions include bans on Russia’s access to the international banking system – a significant risk since nearly all of Russia’s wealth is held in off-shore banks.

    Our intrepid moderator likes to deride American power; but he did himself note that just the mention of sanctions nearly crippled the Turkish economy and collapsed the Turkish lira in a matter of days. Russia is even more vulnerable than Turkey since no-one needs Russia’s gas or oil anymore. The US is now exporting both oil and natural gas, while Russia’s production capacity has been declining for the past decade.

    Russia is suffering defeat externally and internally due to Mr. Putin’s lawless actions.

    St. Seraphim of Sarov wrote to Tsar Aleksandr I in 1811, the year that the Russians abolished the Georgian Patriarchate: “Georgia is the inheritance of the Most Holy Mother of God. Do not make war on Georgia. If you do make war on Georgia, God will make war on Russia, and Russia will be destroyed” That wise Tsar heeded St. Seraphim’s warning; but his heirs did not.

    The tsarist occupiers looted sacred treasures. They outlawed the Georgian language and Georgian liturgical chants. In the end Tsarist Russia was destroyed and the Georgian Patriarchate revived.

    On April 9, 1989 Gorbachov unleashed the Soviet tanks and troops on peaceful teenage protesters in Tbilisi – protesters against the proposed imposition of the Russian language on the Georgian state and its schools. Dozens of young people were killed; but the Soviet Empire collapsed within 2 years.

    Now Putin has again made war on Georgia, the sacred inheritance of the Theotokos. In 1992, St. Gabriel Urgebadze, the great confessor of Christ, the prophet and miracle worker prophesied: “If the Russians take Abkhazeti, the Most Holy Theotokos will never forgive them”.

    The outcome of Putin’s crime spree is clear. All that remains now is the final act, the denouement of this drama, “the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his deeds, eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor and immortality; but to those who are self seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness – indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish on every soul of man who does evil” Romans 2: 5 – 9

    • Stuck, there are always the other jurisdictions here in America that are not going with the schism of the EP. Some of us are praying for the monasteries established by Elder Ephraim to go ROCOR like they started to do at one time.

  10. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from yesterday on the Interfax Religion website.

    News
    07 September 2018, 12:15
    Russian Orthodox Church pauses to clarify situation around Patriarch Bartholomew’s remarks – Patriarch Kirill’s press secretary

    http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=14449

  11. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from today in The National Herald. Also take note of the comments below the article.

    Ecumenical Patriarchate Granting Autocephaly to Orthodox Church in the Ukraine
    By ANA – September 8, 2018

    https://www.thenationalherald.com/212671/ecumenical-patriarchate-granting-autocephaly-to-orthodox-church-in-the-ukraine/

  12. John Sakelaris says

    It is sad to see the tension between Ukrainians and Russians, both heirs of Orthodox Christianity. The tone of some statements on here seems to be that establishing an autocephalous status for the Ukrainian portion of the Church will increase tensions further. I, however, approach this from a different viewpoint: I see that the breach has already been done in all other respects. Why not recognize what has already become an established break?

    What would be the result of the Ecumenical Patriarchate somehow NOT accepting autocephalous status for Ukraine? Would that be sweetness and light? No, I am afraid that it would result in a still-worse tension, with others waiting in the wings seeking to profit from it. The primary contenders, of course, would be the Roman Catholics, the Uniates, and the growing missionary efforts of numerous Protestant groups. And, sadly, when there is denominational tension in today’s Christendom, we sometimes see the children growing up in such environments turn to atheism as a way of resolving it. It this what we want for Ukraine?

    Why not have an administrative separation in hopes of keeping both the Ukrainian and Russian peoples remaining largely Orthodox? We have already seen other neighboring nationalities keep their Orthodox status while having separate administrative arrangements; consider the examples of Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, Georgia and Cyprus.

    • George Michalopulos says

      Excellent question, John. My take on the Ukrainian situation is that of the 18,000 Orthodox churches in the Ukraine, all used to belong to the MP but 6,000 “schismed” off and belong to a schismatic sect that is nowhere and by no one recognized as canonical. It’s “patriarch” has in fact been deposed.

      Honestly, I don’t know the answer to your question however when this situation is viewed in this light, then it becomes impossible to see how anything good can come out of such an illegitimate foundation.

      Perhaps the solomonic action of “splitting the baby” (status quo with an undefrocked man as “patriarch of Kiev” ruling over the 6,000 schismatic churches while the other 12,000 remain under the canonical Metropolitan) is the least, worst outcome.

  13. Gail Sheppard says

    And now it begins:

    “In a statement issued on Saturday, the world’s largest Orthodox church by far also threatened to take unspecified “retaliatory actions.”

    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/russian-orthodox-church-rejects-decision-ukraine-envoys-57692656

  14. http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=14453

    Language is going to get out of control quickly on this matter. Official Russian sources are already talking about Phanar treachery and perfidy.

    It seems that the MP, while seeking additional clarifications, will break communion if autocephaly is actually granted, relieving the Phanar of its position among most Orthodox.

  15. Veras Coltroupis says

    Without the Greeks, Orthodoxy is reduced to Oriental Despotism. No one in the West will give them credibility. Deportation of all the ROCOR Gnisiacs is inevitable.

  16. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from yesterday on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH HOLY SYNOD STATEMENT AS OF SEPTEMBER 8, 2018
    Moscow, September 8, 2018

    http://orthochristian.com/115609.html

    • Bishop Tikhon (Fitzgerald) says

      Some of the main factors motivating the Phanar in its recent canonical convulsions are: its perennial jealousy of the Vatican; cash from US government agencies, directly donated and indirectly donated via their surrogate, Poroshenko; Grecian tribal patriotism. Orthodox Christian religion is not involved and considered to be an annoying distraction.

  17. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from today on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    METROPOLITAN HILARION: PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW WILL BEAR PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY BEFORE THE JUDGEMENT OF GOD AND THE JUDGEMENT OF HISTORY
    Moscow, September 9, 2018

    http://orthochristian.com/115614.html

  18. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article by Interfax-Religion on the OCL website.

    Establishment of Russian church dioceses in Turkey could become a response to Patriarch Bartholomew
    Source: Interfax
    BY WEBMASTER ON SEPTEMBER 9, 2018
    GOVERNANCE & UNITY NEWS, 
    GOVERNANCE TOP STORIES, UNCATEGORIZED

    http://ocl.org/establishment-of-russian-church-dioceses-in-turkey-could-become-a-response-to-patriarch-bartholomew/

  19. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article posted today on the OCL website.

    An “Orthodox Vatican” in the works?
    Source: Byzantine, TX
    BY WEBMASTER ON SEPTEMBER 9, 2018
    GOVERNANCE & UNITY NEWS, 
    GOVERNANCE TOP STORIES

    http://ocl.org/an-orthodox-vatican-in-the-works/

  20. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article posted today on the OCL Facebook website.

    What will an autocephalous Ukrainian Church mean to us?
    Source: Byzantine, TX
    BY WEBMASTER ON SEPTEMBER 9, 2018
    GOVERNANCE & UNITY ESSAYS, 
    GOVERNANCE & UNITY NEWS

    http://ocl.org/what-will-an-autocephalous-ukrainian-church-mean-to-us/

  21. Francis Frost says

    George, you asked me to cite the relevant Canons which the Moscow Patriarchate has violated in its uncanonical invasion and seizure to two entire dioceses of the Georgian Orthodox Patriarchate. Just remember that you asked for it!

    Canons of the first Ecumenical Council (the Apostolic Canons)

    Canon X. (XII.)
    If any clergyman shall join in prayer with a deposed clergyman, as if he were a clergyman, let him also be deposed.

    In the “Orthodox Occupation” television documentary, the Russian Bishop Panteleimon of Karabadino-Adyghe is shown con-celebrating with the schismatic Vissarion Apliaa, and officially awarding him the Order of St Seraphim of Sarov on behalf of the Holy Synod of the Moscow Patriarchate. This demonstrates the direct involvement of the Moscow Patriarchate in the creation of the schismatic “Abkhaz Eparchy” and the violation of the Sacred Canons

    Canon XII. And XIII (XIII.)
    If any one of the clergy or laity who is excommunicated, or not to be received, shall go away, and be received in another city without commendatory letters, let both the receiver and the received be excommunicated. But if he be excommunicated already, let the time of his excommunication be lengthened.

    The Moscow Patriarchate received into the ranks of its clergy the deposed, renegade Archimandrite Vissarion Apliaa, who deserted his monastic and ecclesiastical obedience to Metropolitan Daniel and the Holy Synod of the Georgian Orthodox church. The MP then installed the deposed Vissarion Apliaa as its administrator of the schismatic “Abkhaz Eparchy” in occupied Abkahzeti After the 2008 was, this same Vissarion Apliaa personally led the Russian military forces who expelled at gunpoint that last canonical clergy and monastics in note newly occupied Gali and Kodori districts (eastern Abkhazeti)

    Canon XIV.
    A bishop is not to be allowed to leave his own parish, and pass over into another, although he may be pressed by many to do so, unless there be some proper cause constraining him. as if he can confer some greater benefit upon the persons of that place in the word of godliness. And this must be done not of his own accord, but by the judgment of many bishops, and at their earnest exhortation.

    In August 2008, the Russian bishops, Panteleimon of Kabardino-Adyghe and Feofan of Saratov (since transferred to Machkhala) accompanied the invasion forces and publicly “blessed” the weapons used to attack civilian populations. These “blessings” were televised first in Russia and then in Georgia. You may watch the video with your own eyes as it is included in the “Orthodox Occupation” video on You Tube. These infernal “blessings” are also included in Andrei Nekrasov’s documentary “Uroki Russkogo” (Russian Lessons), which debunks the Russian government’s propaganda campaign of justification for its invasion of Georgia. Mr. Nekrasov’s documentary is also available on You Tube in 12 segments, some with English sub-titles for those who do not understand the Russian language.

    On August 8, 2008, the missiles “blessed” by Bishop Feofan were used attack the ancient Ghvrtaeba Cathedral and the Shrine of the Protomartyr Razhden in Nikozi. On August 9th, the Russian military and their Ossetian allies looted, desecrated and burned this ancient House of God. These weapons were used in bombing raids and missile attacks on civilian populations throughout Georgia, including areas well outside the so-called “zone of conflict”. Through their infernal “blessing” of military weapons of mass destruction, the Russian bishops have blasphemed against the Holy Spirit, since through their actions they have invoked the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life in the cause of murder, mayhem and destruction. Without profound repentance, this sin will not be forgiven; not in this world nor in the next. 

    The 2008 documentary “Orthodox Occupation” has been re-released and posted on You Tube at the following url:
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FRMy143Nm0
     
    Portions of this documentary plus additional footage are now available with English voice over, titled “Orthodox Occupancy Part 1 and Part 2” at the following urls:
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dWSx4scmP0
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmw7jY3gzj4&feature=related
     
    A television documentary on the destruction of Ghvertaeba and the work of reconstruction carried out by Metropolitan Isaiah may be viewed at:

    http://pik.tv/en/war/film/1755

     By their own actions, the bishops of the Moscow Patriarchate have violated the Apostolic Canons, and they have spurned the Lord’s commandment to “Love your neighbor as yourself”. They have specifically violated the Apostolic Canons 11-16, and 30 -35.  The prescribed penalty for any one of these crimes against the church is deposition and or excommunication, both for the offender and any who continue to commune with him!

    Canon XV.
    If any presbyter, or deacon, or any other of the list of the clergy, shall leave his own parish, and go into another, and having entirely forsaken his own, shall make his abode in the other parish without the permission of his own bishop, we ordain that he shall no longer perform divine service; more especially if his own bishop having exhorted him to return he has refused to do so, and persists in his disorderly conduct. But let him communicate there as a layman.

    After the 1992-93 invasion of Abkhazia, the Russian Orthodox Church created a schismatic “Abkhaz Orthodox Eparchy” on the ruins of the legitimate Orthodox Diocese of Tskhumi and all Abkhazia. The “leader” of this schismatic church is the de-frocked Archimandrite Vissarion Apliaa. Despite the obvious schismatic, un-canonical nature of this so-called “Eparchy”; the Moscow Patriarchate has ordained and assigned clergy to this diocese, and has funded its work. This Abkhaz Eparchy has since divided into two camps, one still loyal to Moscow, the other has declared itself an “Autonomous Abkhaz Metropolia” with a self ordained bishop, Archmandrite Dorofei Dbar. The 2008 documentary “Orthodox Occupation” describes the participation of the Moscow Patriarchate and its clergy in the history of the aggression against the Georgian nation and the Georgian Orthodox Patriarchate. 

    Canon XVI.
    If, however, the bishop, with whom any such persons are staying, shall disregard the command that they are to cease from performing divine offices, and shall receive them as clergymen, let him be excommunicated, as a teacher of disorder.

    see above.

    Canon XXX. (XXXI.)
    If any bishop obtain possession of a church by the aid of the temporal powers, let him be deposed and excommunicated, and all who communicate with him.

    During the invasions of Georgia in 1991 – 1993 Russian forces used Muslim militia to target he native Georgian Orthodox faithful. For the past 25 years, since the genocide and ethnic cleansing that destroyed the Georgian Orthodox community in Abkhazia, a campaign which killed 47,000 Orthodox Christians and drove another 246,000 Orthodox Christians from their ancestral homes, the Russian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate has maintained a non-canonical “Abkhaz Eparchy” on the territory and in the very churches stolen from the legitimate Orthodox diocese of Pitsunda, Tskhum and Abkhazia. Despite the clear violation of the Apostolic Canons, the MP has continued its schismatic activity.

    Descriptions of the suffering of the victims of this genocidal campaign can be read at:

    http://digitalcaucasus.blogspot.com/2007_12_02_archive.html

    Canon XXXI. (XXXII.)
    If any presbyter, despising his own bishop, shall collect a separate congregation, and erect another altar, not having any grounds for condemning the bishop with regard to religion or justice, let him be deposed for his ambition; for he is a tyrant; in like manner also the rest of the clergy, and as many as join him; and let laymen be excommunicated. Let this, however, be done after a first, second, and third admonition from the bishop.

    After the 1992-93 invasion of Abkhazia, the Russian Orthodox Church created a schismatic “Abkhaz Orthodox Eparchy” on the ruins of the legitimate Orthodox Diocese of Tskhumi and all Abkhazia. The “leader” of this schismatic church is the de-frocked Archimandrite Vissarion Apliaa. Despite the obvious schismatic, un-canonical nature of this so-called “Eparchy”; the Moscow Patriarchate has ordained and assigned clergy to this diocese, and has funded its work.This Abkhaz Eparchy has since divided into two camps, one still loyal to Moscow, the other has declared itself an “Autonomous Abkhaz Metropolia” with a self ordained bishop, Archmandrite Dorofei Dbar. The 2008 documentary “Orthodox Occupation” describes the participation of the Moscow Patriarchate and its clergy in the history of the aggression against the Georgian nation and the Georgian Orthodox Patriarchate. 

    Canon XXXII. (XXXIII.)
    If any presbyter or deacon has been excommunicated by a bishop, he may not be received into communion again by any other than by him who excommunicated him, unless it happen that the bishop who excommunicated him be dead.

    see above

    Canon XXXIII. (XXXIV.)
    No foreign bishop, presbyter, or deacon, may be received without commendatory letters; and when they are produced let the persons be examined; and if they be preachers of godliness, let them be received. Otherwise, although you supply them with what they need, you must not receive them into communion, for many things are done surreptitiously.

    see above

    Canon XXXV. (XXXVI.)
    Let not a bishop dare to ordain beyond his own limits, in cities and places not subject to him. But if he be convicted of doing so, without the consent of those persons who have authority over such cities and places, let him be deposed, and those also whom he has ordained.

    see above

    By these abominations of wickedness, the Russian bishops have “crucified again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame”  (Hebrews 6:4-6), for as the Lord Himself said, “as you did it to these the least of my brethren, so you did it to Me”  Matthew 25:40.

    Despite the enormity of these crimes, His Holiness, Patriarch Ilya II and the Holy Synod of the Georgian Patriarchate have followed the apostolic example of long-suffering and conciliation. “When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to conciliate.”  I Corinthians 4:9.  The Georgian Orthodox Patriarchate twice sent a delegation headed by Metropolitan Gerasime of Zugdidi to Moscow to conciliate. The Georgian Patriarchate offered to grant the status of a metochion to the Russian clergy operating in the occupied territories. The Russians refused that offer and demanded the right of conquest. The Russians upbraided the Georgians for “ingratitude” for “all we have done for you”. Relating this story, Metropolitan Antony told us; “They have stolen a quarter of my country, killed thousands of my countrymen and have driven hundreds of thousands into exile, and they expect me to be grateful?”

    The Russians have repeatedly have used military power and political violence to further their imperialist aims in direct violation of the Canons of the First Ecumenical Council. Then, having created military “facts on the ground” the Russians would like to believe that their accretions are somehow sacrosanct, and endorsed by the Holy Tradition. Not so!

    The Putinists would have us believe that the borders drawn by the Comintern are an inviolable expression of the Orthodox tradition. Not so !

    I believe it was “Basil” who asked what was the opinion of the Holy Synod of there Georgian Orthodox Patriarchate about situation in Ukraine:

    I should here note here that in 2008, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew promised Patriarch Ilya that the Russian occupation of Georgian dioceses would be placed on the agenda for the then future “Great and Holy Council. In 2009, Patriarch Bartholomew reneged on that promise, claiming that “there wasn’t sufficient time” to address that issue. At the time Igumenia Nino of the Baghdati convent told us ruefully: “The whole Orthodox world has abandoned us”. This is the real reason that he Georgian Patriarchate refused to participate in the Cretan Council.

    Over the past year the Moscow Patriarchate has been attempting to assemble an anti-EP coalition to support its position on Ukrainian autocephaly. Of course, the MP has an Achille’s heel – its own flagrant and persistent violation of the Sacred Canons. Not surprisingly, they are now trying to cover their tracks in Georgia.

    Several months ago the MP announced via its Orthochristian.ru web-site that Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev had again, for the third time travelled to Tbilisi to again request that Patriarch Ilya II and the Holy Synod grant the status of a ‘metochion’ to the invading MP clergy in occupied Georgia. Sadly, the hapless Metropolitan Hilarion again went home empty handed.

    In other words, should Patriarch Kirill press his campaign against the EP too far, the EP has documented, verifiable grounds to depose and / or excommunicate the entire synod of the Moscow Patriarchate. A decade ago, the Georgians were willing to grant the invaders the fig leaf ‘metochion’ to hide the shame of their crimes against the Christian people. Now, not so much.

    At the spring session of the Holy Synod of the Georgian Orthodox Patriarchate, letters from Patriarch Bartholomew, Metropolitan Onuphry and Patriarch Kirill were read.

    After discussion, the Holy Synod took no formal action on the matter.

    His All-Holiness, Patriarch- Catholicos Ilya II expressed his personal opinion that the question of the unification of the Church in Ukraine should be solved “without outside interference and in accordance with the sacred canons”. Metropolitan Petre of Chkondidi – Martvili agreed with His All-Holiness’ statement but went on to share his personal opinion that “the Ukrainians should have their own church.”

    The ‘Orthochristian’ web-site edited the actual text and misrepresented the press release from the patriarchate for their own ends.

    Our church is in peril – and we all know it is – for one simple reason. Our leaders and our people have forgotten Christ’s saving commandments. All the financial scandals, all the canonical disorder and the steady dribbling away of our posterity are due to the fact that “the salt has lost its savor”.

    The Orthochristian web-site is right about one thing. The crisis in Ukraine has only one solution, which is repentance; but it is NOT the Ukrainians who need to repent so much, as it is the Moscow Patriarchate and its sponsors in the Lyubyanka who need to repent of their violent imperialist fantasies.

    George, you like your Russian friends, are oblivious to your own contradictions. You lament the millions of Christians who were murdered by the NKVD / KGB, while you lionize Putin, who was and is the head of the KBG / SVR/ FSB; and who has done all he can to rebuild their stinking Soviet empire.

    Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets”. Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Matthew 23: 29 – 31

    P.S. Just as an aside, Russian media are now hinting the Putin is set to turn against the church, or at least against Patriarch Kirill

    • George Michalopulos says

      Francis, you are clearly not seeing the big picture here. Which is this: every other Orthodox primate (Patriarch/Metropolitan) is now looking at what the EP is doing and wondering, what is going to stop him from encroaching onto their territory?

      And yes, Francis, there is a canonical Church in Ukraine –one which everybody recognizes as canonical (the EP as well). Did they ask for the EP’s advice? No. A puppet regime installed by your neocon buddies at the Obama State dept did so. Not good. Not good.

      When you look at things in this light, then you can clearly see that the EP has not only violated the letter of the canons but the very spirit behind them.

  22. Francis Frost says

    George:

    I have given you a list of the MP’s canonical violations and the documented historical sources that verify those accusations.

    So far, neither you nor your correspondants have provided any canonical or historical rebuttal.

    All you have is the “spirit of this age”, the godless belief that “might makes right”.

    You may dismiss my arguments as ‘irrelevant’; but there are those even in Russia who agree.

    Ilya Zabezhinsky, an Orthodox commentator from St. Petersburg says that the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate by its promotion of the Kremlin’s agenda of “a Russian world” has failed in its Christian mission

    Under Patriarch Kirill and President Vladimir Putin, the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate has become the ideological department of the powers that be of the Russian Federation and essentially ceased to be the Russian Orthodox Church. Instead, it is becoming the Church of the Russian Federation

    Kirill and his bishops have kissed only one president … blessed only one army … prayed for only one Olympic team” and in general shown indifference to all the others.

    The Moscow Patriarchate has cursed liberals and the West as sources of evil and threats to Russian values, but what forces of evil are these In America, there are six million practicing Orthodox Christians, but among us there are no more than three or four million.

    No one in the Moscow Patriarchate should be surprised that all are running away from it, the Christian churches in the former Soviet space, the Russian believers who put Christ ahead of Putin, and all those who care about the rights and freedoms they should have as citizens of a modern country.

    Our church has spent the last 20 years promoting things that have nothing to do with Christianity and not promoting the things that are at the core of the faith. Its members should not be surprised that others are running away from us, as the Ukrainian Orthodox now are, and that unless we change, others will do the same.

    We are small little local church with a small flock, something that is not bad in principle. Perhaps, we should give up earthly ambitions and remember Christ.

    We will be the Church of the Russian Federation. The rest do not want us. We ourselves are guilty that they don’t. Let’s leave the rest in peace. Let’s give up our protection from the government. Let’s sell our mitres …Let’s reduce the taxes on the bishoprics … Let’s make the texts of divine service more accessible.

    (facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=2068798353179455&id=100001479301887).

    • Monk James Silver says

      While all of the story which Francis Frost tells us here is true, I think that we must first unscramble the craziness in Ukraine before we go on to Georgia, a church and country which — Heaven knows! — deserve our sympathy and support in every way.

      Let Ukraine return administratively to Russia where it has always belonged, and let Georgia return from Russian control to its independent status where it has always belonged. Grant it Lord, and grant peace to Your churches!

      • anonimus per Scorilo says

        “might makes right” has been the modus operandi of the Russian Orthodox Church since long time ago:

        When the province of Basarabia (part of the Metropolia of Moldavia, under Constantinople) was conquered by the Russian empire in 1812, it was forced immediately under Moscow (the Russian bishop confiscated the liturgical books in Romanian and heated up his palace one winter by burning all of them). Nobody cared about the “canonical territory” of Constantinople or of the Moldavian metropolia back then. It was just “might makes right”, and people in Moscow even claim nowadays that the republic of Moldova (Basarabia) is part of the “canonical territory” of the Russian Orthodox Church.

        So the logic is quite simple: whenever the Russian Empire / Soviet Union / Russian Federation / First Order / etc. conquers a place, it becomes immediately part of the ROC canonical territory. However, whenever they lose a place, they start throwing hysterics and threatening schism because of their canonical territory is violated.

        • Johann Sebastian says

          You’re forgetting one important thing. Bessarabia is Moldavian/Romanian.

          That’s a very different story from Kiev and indeed the whole of Ukraine. It is fundamentally Russian. That it was overrun by Catholic Poles and brainwashed for 300 years is lost on you. Russia took it back. Taking back something that was yours (in fact something that constitutes your very essence) is different from conquering something that’s next to you but not really part of you.

  23. Joseph Lipper says

    Why does Moscow want to keep the Ukrainian Greek Catholics under the Pope of Rome? An Ukrainian autocephaly backed by an Ukrainian government would undoubtedly cause most, if not all, Ukrainian Greek Catholics to become Orthodox. Isn’t that what we want? Why does Moscow want to protect the unia with Rome?

    • I think that at the opposite, the new autocephalous church or Ukraine will immediately enter in communion with the uniates

      • George Michalopulos says

        And that may have been the point after all. This is the “bridge” that Patr Bartholomew has been craving for since he assumed his throne.

      • Joseph Lipper says

        Solofisto, if that’s the case, then why hasn’t the Kievan “Patriarchate” already united with Rome? If it’s “Unia” they really want, then what’s preventing them from doing it?

  24. I agree with Monk James. Before we start muddying the water with accusations against the MP for its “non-canonical” activities in a conflict which ended 10 years ago, following Sakashvilli’s ill-advised aggression (that’s right, according to an independent EU Commission, Moscow didn’t start that war-could it be that the Georgian government never thought to imagine the consequences should they LOSE?) let’s focus on the present day crisis of the EP’s making: the giving of autocephaly to a band of violent ultra-nationalists in Ukraine; led by a defrocked clergyman who has proclaimed himself “Patriarch of Kiev.”
    Francis, the old childhood adage “Two wrongs don’t make a right” applies to your argument, canons and all. “Apples and oranges” is another phrase which comes to mind. You freely admit that Bartholomew himself didn’t give two, uh…figs, for the canonical situation of the hapless sufferers in the formerly Georgian dioceses, but he is more than willing to foment civil war (and possibly world war) with his meddling in the Ukraine.
    If you think Mr. Denisenko will hesitate for a minute before calling upon upon the civil authorities (if such armed bands as the Azov Battalion and Pravy Sektor could be called “civil”) in order to forcefully wrest ancient and holy landmarks of Slavic Orthodoxy such as the Kiev Caves Lavra and Pochaev Monastery from their canonical Church, with all the chaos and bloodshed which will certainly ensue, then you’re sadly deluded and mistaken.
    Picture a peaceful crowd of UOCMP believers denying Denisenko access to the Kiev Caves Lavra by blocking the entrance with Metropolitan Onufry at their head. Now picture that same group of people dragged away in a cloud of tear gas, while being beaten with riot batons, or (more to Pravy Sektor’s liking) shot down where they stand.
    Bartholomew has publicly recognized the canonical status of the UOCMP as well as their First Hierarch, Metropolitan Onufry.
    How does he now turn around and deny this by granting “autocephaly” to a band of thieves and robbers? And what of the vast majority of Orthodox Patriarchates who have forcefully warned him against taking such a dangerous step? Will they perhaps break communion with him alongside Moscow, causing a world-wide Orthodox Schism? How does this benefit the Church?
    You compare the present day crisis to the situation which played out in Estonia in 1996. Francis, I hate to break it to you, but Estonia ain’t Ukraine. Another case of apples and oranges. All the mechanisms were there for a clean break: Ethnic Estonian Orthodox went EP, Slavic Orthodox, MP. There was no threat of bloodshed and a war was not taking place. Further, as if I have to even say it, Moscow was not nearly so historically, ethnically and ecclesiastically invested in Tallin as they are in Kiev. And for 300 years, the Ecumenical Patriarchate has said NOTHING to remind “world Orthodoxy” that their claim of canonical authority in Kiev has never been rescinded. Only in the last few months has this claim been suddenly “remembered.”
    All of your scriptural invective can be equally applied to His All-Holiness for his incomprehensible willingness to inflict a gaping wound in the Body of Christ. God help us all.

    • George Michalopulos says

      Excellent reply to our dear brother Francis, who for some strange reason cannot see the dozens of canonical violations engendered by the See of Constantinople ever since the unfortunate tenure of Meletius Metaxakis. The first one being that he was a Freemason (as were several of his successors).

      Francis, at the end of Anonymous Orthodox riposte to you, I guess I could say “put that one in your pipe and smoke it” but in your neoconservative delusions you cannot see the primrose path that the globalists are strewing for American naifs such as yourself. Indeed, you can only bring yourself to ascribe good intentions to those who are against Moscow. To everyone else however, the consideration of Metaxakis’ personal heresy should bring everything else that has transpired since then into sharp focus.

      Clearly, the “Ecumenical Throne” is now a tool of the globalists. The only question at this point is if and/or when the globalists will jettison that throne once their goals have been achieved. Think of it: the list of American allies who have been thrown under the bus is a long one:

      1. Taiwan.: Thrown overboard for the sake of the Red Chinese.
      2. South Vietnam: I’ll never forget the helicopters trying to take off from the American embassy in Saigon or the tens of thousands of Boat People.
      3. Greece: Remember Cyprus? Still divided.
      4. Serbia: Did the West ask them if they could cleave off Kosovo-Metohije from them?
      5. Iraq: Weren’t they told by us to invade Iran? Yup. Now a protectorate of Iran.
      6. Libya: Technically not an ally but Gaddafi was so willing to be one that he stopped his own WMD program.
      7. Georgia: Randy Scheunerman and John McCain assured the oafish president of that nation to initiate hostilities against Russia. Smart. Really smart.
      8. ISIS. Yes, you read that right. The dearly departed Sen McCain even boldly stated on Meet the Press that “we created ISIS”.
      9. The Palestinian Authority. Ever since the Oslo Accords, the US actively supported the PA to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. Recently, the Trump Administration has yanked the rug out from the PA by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the shutting of funds to the PA and the closure of their offices in the US.
      10. Iran. I suppose the best thing we could say about the incompetence of the Carter Administration as regards to this nation was that we at least allowed the Shah and his family to escape with their heads still on their shoulders.

      I guess now that in due time we’ll add Ukraine to that mix.

  25. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from today on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    RUSSIAN CHURCH ABROAD RELEASES STATEMENT ON CONSTANTINOPLE’S APPOINT OF EXARCHS TO KIEV
    New York, September 10, 2018

    http://orthochristian.com/115626.html

  26. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find another article from today on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    THE DECLINE OF THE PATRIARCHATE OF CONSTANTINOPLEAn overview written in 1938

    St. John (Maximovich) of Shanghai and San Francisco

    http://orthochristian.com/115619.html

  27. George Michalopulos says

    A Ukrainian source sent us the statements of the hierarchs and primates of the 11 Orthodox Churches in support of the canonical UOC:

    http://ivano-frankivsk.church.ua/2018/09/10/zayavi-ijerarxiv-ta-predstoyateliv-11-pravoslavnix-cerkov-na-pidtrimku-kanonichnoji-upc/

  28. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from today on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    CONSTANTINOPLE REJECTING DIALOGUE WITH RUSSIAN CHURCH
    Moscow, September 10, 2018

    http://orthochristian.com/115639.html

  29. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find another article from today on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    “TENTACLES OF GLOBALIZATION” ARE TRYING TO DESTROY ORTHODOXY IN UKRAINE—PAT. THEOPHILOS OF JERUSALEM
    Jerusalem, September 10, 2018

    http://orthochristian.com/115638.html

  30. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find yet another article from today on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    GREECE REFUSES VISA TO BISHOP OF ST. PETERSBURG
    St. Petersburg, September 10, 2018

    http://orthochristian.com/115632.html

    • George Michalopulos says

      See? I said that the present govt of Greece is anti-Christian. I imagine Athos os going to be marginalized as time goes on.

  31. Gregg Gerasimon says

    George, have you seen this excellent article on the history of “Patriarch” Filaret? It’s the best history of the Ukrainian situation that I’ve read yet. Fr Stephen Freeman recently posted it.

    https://spzh.news/en/zashhita-very/43453-filaret-as-the-main-enemy-of-ukrainian-autocephaly

    It’s clear that this “Patriarch” is a deluded and power-hungry person. That the Church in Constantinople wants to deal with him and enable his delusions is terrifying in terms of what it implies about the Constantinopolitan Church.

    I’ve also read that the Patr. of Constantinople has been paid somewhere from $15 million to $25 million to grant the schismatics this sham “autocephaly.” Have you heard that? It better not be any of my tax dollars going toward such a payout.

    • Greatly Saddened says

      How unfortunate. If there is any truth to a possible payment being made. But, then again, it seems money talks! Even more so, considering it is in reference to the so called “Church!” Lord have mercy on us all!

      • This is from an Izvestia news article from July 20, 2018, via Google translate (izvestia.kiev.ua) :

        “On the eve of Poroshenko’s visit in Istanbul, a few wealthy people of Ukraine ‘chipped in’ in order to hasten the process of creating a Unified Local Orthodox Church. About $25 million was collected. They were supposed to go to the award ceremony for Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople for the issuing of a tomos of autocephaly. However, in the words of people close to the backer, during the visit on April 9, Poroshenko handed over only $10 million.

        “As a result, having learned of the deal [of only handing over $10 million of the $25 million], Bartholomew cancelled the participation of the delegation of the Phanar (the residence of the Patriarch of Constantinople) in the celebration of the 1030th anniversary of the Baptism of Russia in Kiev.

        “…. For preliminary information, only after receiving the remaining [$15 million], did Bartholomew finally give his consent to sending a delegation of the Phanar to Kiev, including Metropolitan Emmanuel of Gaul, Bishops Daniel of Chicago and Bishop Hilarion of Edmonton.”

    • Greatly Saddened says

      Just a friendly reminder … one cannot buy their way in to Heaven. No matter who the person may be or the title they may hold!

  32. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an announcement from Saturday on the Moscow Patriarchate website.

    08.09.2018 14:15
    Russian Orthodox Church Holy Synod Statement as of September 8, 2018

    Inter-Orthodox relations, News
    Share the post “Russian Orthodox Church Holy Synod Statement as of September 8, 2018”

    https://mospat.ru/en/2018/09/08/news163522/

  33. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from today on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    CONSTANTINOPLE SEES NO THREAT OF SCHISM DUE TO UKRAINIAN AUTOCEPHALY
    Constantinople, September 11, 2018

    http://orthochristian.com/115664.html

  34. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from Sunday on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    METROPOLITAN HILARION (ALFEYEV): THE CURRENT SITUATION CREATES A THREAT OF SCHISM FOR UNIVERSAL ORTHODOXY
    Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev)

    http://orthochristian.com/115613.html

  35. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from yesterday in The National Herald.

    A Bold Decision
    By Theodore Kalmoukos – September 12, 2018

    https://www.thenationalherald.com/213109/a-bold-decision/

  36. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from today on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    THE APOTHEOSIS OF EASTERN PAPISM
    Archpriest Andrei Novikov

    http://orthochristian.com/115685.html

  37. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find another article from today on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    “PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW WILL BE REMEMBERED AS A TEACHER OF SCHISM”
    Alexander Shchipkov

    http://orthochristian.com/115696.html

  38. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from yesterday on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    BELARUSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH CONDEMNS CONSTANTINOPLE’S ANTI-CANONICAL INCURSION INTO UKRAINE
    Minsk, September 12, 2018

    http://orthochristian.com/115699.html

  39. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find another article from yesterday on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    ON ENVY AND LOVE OF POWER IN THE HISTORY OF BYZANTIUM AND RUS’
    Protodeacon Vladimir Vasilik

    http://orthochristian.com/115665.html

  40. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from Monday on the Atlantic Council website.

    SEPTEMBER 10, 2018
    Why Independence for Ukraine’s Orthodox Church Is an Earthquake for Putin
    BY TARAS KUZIO

    http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/why-independence-for-ukraine-s-orthodox-church-is-an-earthquake-for-putin

    • George Michalopulos says

      Just so everybody is aware, The Atlantic Council is the propaganda arm of NATO. They’ve been pushing for war with Russia for several years now.

      Just an FYI. It’s my opinion that after The New York Times and the rest of corporate media sold us the lie on WMD back in the early 2000s, we should be aware of who exactly owns these media outlets.

      A word to the wise.

      • Monk James Silver says

        I thought it was Karl Rove and George W. Bush who lied to Colin Powell and others and made him embarrass himself and the United States at the United Nations regarding Saddam Hussein’s ‘weapons of mass destruction’. which turned out to be non-existent and more like ‘weapons of mass distraction’.

        I never understood why Rove & Co. urged us into this pointless war, but the experience shamed that good man, Colin Powell, right out of public service.
        i
        Of what owners of media outlets should we be aware, George?

        • George Michalopulos says

          Thanks to the Clinton Administration/GOP-Congress deregulation of the media/entertainment/news industry, we went from 55 corporations to six mega-conglomerates (Comcast, Disney, Capcities, etc.) NBC-Comcast is owned by General Electric for example. And GE is one of the major defense companies.

          There are many points but one especially needs to be kept in mind and that is that every time you see some retired General or Admiral (like James Stavrides) on MSNBC or CNN (the “liberal” networks) and they’re pushing for war here or there, know why that they are on the boards of Raytheon, GE, Boeing, etc.

  41. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find a posting from Tuesday on the OCL Facebook website.

    His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Clarifies the Situation of the Ukrainian Church
    Source: Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in America
    BY WEBMASTER ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2018
    GOVERNANCE & UNITY NEWS, 
    GOVERNANCE TOP STORIES

    http://ocl.org/his-all-holiness-ecumenical-patriarch-bartholomew-clarifies-the-situation-of-the-ukrainian-church/

    • Joseph Lipper says

      Greatly Saddened,

      Thank you. Patriarch Bartholomew makes an excellent case in this article for Ukrainian autocephaly.

    • Wow. This is very rich. And not in a good way.

      “…the uncanonical interventions of Moscow from time to time in the affairs of Kiev and the toleration on the part of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in previous years do not validate any ecclesiastical violation.”

      Huh? So for the past several hundreds of years when the Church of Russia has exercised administrative jurisdiction over the Church in Ukraine, the EP was just tacitly “tolerating” it and more or less waiting for the right time to swoop back in and take control? He must think that we all just fell off the turnip truck.

      “Each patriarch should be satisfied with his own privileges and not snatch the privileges of another eparchy, which does not lie within or under the authority of his jurisdiction. For this is the conceit of worldly power.”

      Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. What about the EP going into Estonia? What about the EP going in everywhere else in the world (well, I guess that everyplace outside of Istanbul is “barbarian lands”) and creating jurisdictions? Heck, the EP even has a Russian jurisdiction in Western Europe. Will it be giving back the St Alexander Nevsky Cathedral on the rue Daru in Paris back to the Church in Russia?

      “Thus, since Russia, as the one responsible for the current painful situation in Ukraine, is unable to solve the problem, the Ecumenical Patriarchate assumed the initiative of resolving the problem in accordance with the authority afforded to it by the Sacred Canons and the jurisdictional responsibility over the eparchy of Kiev, receiving a request to this end by the honorable Ukrainian Government, as well as recurring requests by ‘Patriarch’ Philaret of Kiev appealing for our adjudication of his case.”

      Um, well Mikhail Denysenko (“Filaret”) is certifiably nuts, had a wife and three children after he took monastic vows, has broken solemn vows on the Gospel that he himself made, is not ashamed of using and encouraging violence to achieve his own ends, and is a blatant opportunist, cozying up to the secular powers in Ukraine to consolidate his own power. One of the only things that the Church of Russia is responsible for in Ukraine is exercising restraint and prayerful hope and patience that the schismatics will return to their Mother Church.

      What the EP should have written and the end of his propaganda piece is instead:
      “The Ecumenical Patriarchate assumed the initiative of resolving the problem because the Ukrainian government paid us upwards of $15 or $20 million and our handlers in Washington DC say that they will no longer support us if we don’t cozy up to the insane ‘Filaret’ and always go against Russia, just like it was in the good ol’ 1950s. We, living in the Queen of Cities on the Bosphorus, are throwing our lot in with the schismatics, the US government, and the Vatican, and we are going to try to scare and shame the rest of the Orthodox Christians throughout the world to follow us over this cliff. If they don’t, we will scare and shame them some more. But anyway, most of the wealthy Greek-Americans support us, and we don’t care about much other than getting their support and keeping ties with the wealthy US government intact. And of course the Ukrainian pay off helped us in more ways than one to make our decision. We pray that all the hierarchs and faithful of the Holy Orthodox Church around the world will consider carefully my words and will rally behind me with a renewed unity, because I am, after all, the Eastern Pope. Eis polla to me!”

      All I can say is good riddance to “Filaret,” and it looks like good riddance to the EP.

  42. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from today in The National Herald.

    Bartholomew Sends Exarchy to Ukraine; Moscow Responds with Threats
    By Theodore Kalmoukos – September 13, 2018

    https://www.thenationalherald.com/213201/bartholomew-sends-exarchy-to-ukraine-moscow-responds-with-threats/

  43. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from today on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    RUSSIAN HOLY SYNOD TO MEET IN EXTRAORDINARY SESSION TODAY
    Moscow, September 14, 2018

    http://orthochristian.com/115740.html

  44. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from Wednesday on the Religious Information Service Ukraine website.

    ANDRIY KURAIEV: PATRIARCH KIRILL FOLLOWED THE PATH OF TRUE SCHISM
    12 September 2018, 10:30 | Inter-Orthodox relations

    https://risu.org.ua/en/index/all_news/confessional/orthodox_relations/72603/

  45. Gail Sheppard says

    What the heck is going on???????

    * * *

    “Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and all Ukraine, who is the supreme hierarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church reporting to Moscow Patriarchate and who also sits on the Holy Synod as its permanent member, took part in the emergency session by teleconference. – Dr. Vladimir Legoida, the chief of Moscow Patriarchate’s department for external Church relations, told TASS earlier the Russian Church might sever contacts with the Ecumenical Patriarchate if the latter moved on to legitimize the Ukrainian schism.”

    http://tass.com/society/1021682

    “Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) Kirill will no longer recall Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew, during the service, Russian media report, referring to the head of the Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk. “The synod decided to suspend the commemoration of the Patriarch of Constantinople during services at the Russian Orthodox Church,” said the Metropolitan. In addition, the ROC ceases participation in all structures presided by representatives of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. “Eucharistic communication between the churches is not being severed. This decision so far does not deprive the clergy of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the ROC of the possibility to perform joint services,” explained the spokesman of Patriarch Cyril, priest Alexander Volkov.”

    Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/politics/10261308-holy-divorce-russian-orthodox-church-quits-constantinople-led-structures.html

    “KIEV (Sputnik) – Reports about the decision to grant autocephaly to an Ukrainian church allegedly taken by the Ecumenical Patriarchate are false and distort the reality, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) said on Saturday.” “In connection with the massive spread of false information that distorts the words of the Ecumenical Patriarchate spokesman, Metropolitan Emmanuel (Adamakis) of France, following the meeting of the Constantinople and Moscow Patriarchs in Istanbul on August 31, 2018, the following should be clarified: in his statement, Metropolitan Emmanuel did not say that the Ecumenical Patriarchate had decided to grant autocephaly to the church in Ukraine,” the UOC-MP said in a statement.”

    https://sputniknews.com/europe/201809021067679051-ukraine-orthodox-church-autocephaly-grant-refute/

    • George Michalopulos says

      Lord have mercy.

    • Gail, this is how the Great Schism of 2018 began.

      Non commemoration is the last step before formal excommunication. Athos has done this to the Phanar before but this is another local church. This is a major backing away from the notion of Constantinople as first among equals.

  46. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from today on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    RUSSIAN CHURCH SUSPENDS COMMEMORATION OF PAT. BARTHOLOMEW AND CONCELEBRATION WITH CONSTANTINOPLE HIERARCHS, EUCHARISTIC COMMUNION NOT BROKEN
    Moscow, September 14, 2018

    http://orthochristian.com/115763.html

  47. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find another article from today on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    UKRAINIAN CHURCH WILL NOT MEET WITH EXARCHS WHO CAME WITHOUT ITS BLESSING—MET. ONUPHRY
    Kiev, September 14, 2018

    http://orthochristian.com/115761.html

  48. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from today on the Interfax Religion website. Also note additional articles below this one.

    News
    14 September 2018, 15:29
    Constantinople Patriarchate has no right to interfere in Ukrainian church affairs – Metropolitan Onufry

    http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=14479

  49. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from today on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    STATEMENT OF THE HOLY SYNOD OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH CONCERNING THE UNCANONICAL INTERVENTION OF THE PATRIARCHATE OF CONSTANTINOPLE IN THE CANONICAL TERRITORY OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH

    http://orthochristian.com/115776.html

  50. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from Wednesday on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    UKRAINIAN CHURCH CALLS FOR COUNCIL OF ORTHODOX PRIMATES
    Kiev, September 12, 2018

    http://orthochristian.com/115683.html

  51. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from today on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    THE CHURCH IS NOT A POLITICAL ORGANIZATION
    An Exclusive Interview on the Ecclesiastical Events in Ukraine
    Metropolitan Onuphry (Berezovsky)

    http://orthochristian.com/115784.html

  52. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find anothet article from today on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    ORTHODOXY REPRESENTS OUR ORIGINAL INCOMPETENCY
    Fr. Stephen Freeman

    http://orthochristian.com/115719.html

  53. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from today on the Pravmir website.

    UOC Official Believes Most of its Parishioners Won’t Leave for Constantinople’s “Autocephaly”
    Source: Interfax-Religion
    PRAVMIR.COM TEAM | 17 SEPTEMBER 2018

    http://www.pravmir.com/uoc-official-believes-most-of-its-parishioners-wont-leave-for-constantinoples-autocephaly/

    • Joseph Lipper says

      Although the UOC-MP has more parishes in Ukraine, it appears that the UOC-KP has significantly more people. Ukrainian people I’ve talked to say that many Ukrainians are tired of hearing overtly political sermons in the Moscow Patriarchate parishes. Attendance at UOC-KP parishes is increasing, while attendance at many UOC-MP parishes is decreasing. The UOC-KP also uses Ukrainian in the services instead of Slavonic.

      “As of 2016, according to a survey held by the Razumkov Center, 70% of the total respondents declared to be believers, while 10.1% were uncertain whether they believed or not, 7.2% were uninterested in beliefs, 6.3% were unbelievers, 2.7% were atheists, and a further 3.9% found it difficult to answer the question. Of the total respondents, about 65.4% of the population declared to be adherents of various types of Orthodoxy (25% Orthodoxy of the Kievan Patriarchate, 21.2% just Orthodox, 15% Orthodoxy of the Moscovian Patriarchate, 1.8% Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, and 2% other types of Orthodoxy), 7.1% just Christians, 6.5% Greek Rite Catholics, 1.9% Protestants, 1.1% Muslims and 1.0% Latin Rite Catholics. Judaism and Hinduism were the religions of 0.2% of the population each. A further 16.3% of the population were non-believers or believed in some other religion.[1]”

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Ukraine

      • George Michalopulos says

        Interesing, if true. Regardless, it’s irrelevant. The KP is schismatic and recognized by no other local Church.

        And besides, are they not hearing politicized sermons in the KP churches.

        • Joseph Lipper says

          “the Moscow and Kyiv patriarchates offer different models of cultural and civilization development. Not all Ukrainians want to be a part of the so-called ‘Russian World’,” says religion expert Olha Nedavnya, referring to the pan-Slavic idea promoted by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, head of the Russian Orthodox Church.

          “Some Ukrainian priests of the Moscow Patriarchate promote the “Russian World” concept too. The villagers of Pasichna, a village in Kyiv Oblast, were displeased because their priest Serhiy Kushnir espoused Russian views of the war and tore down Ukrainian flags that they hung on their houses. During a church service, he tried to convince the attenders that Ukraine should be part of Russia, the villagers say.

          “People in our village want to attend a national Ukrainian church. We hope that in the nearest future a priest from the Kyiv Patriarchate will serve the divine service,” says Pasichna resident Liubov Kushch.”

          https://www.kyivpost.com/article/content/ukraine-politics/ukrainians-shun-moscow-patriarchate-as-russias-war-intensifies-in-donbas-378168.html

  54. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from today on the Interfax Religion website.

    News
    17 September 2018, 11:32
    Metropolitan Hilarion accuses U.S. of deliberately destroying Russian Orthodox Church

    http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=14483

    • Finally, Met Ilarion calls a spare a spade and recognizes in public the type of war Russia is in. The West can’t bear to allow white Christian Russia to reemerge as a world power. The “values” of the West are directly challenged by the RF and rightist European parties. Each side should see it as the existential struggle that it is and proceed accordingly. The West already sees it. Russia better wake up and play much harder ball.

    • Tim R. Mortiss says

      America doesn’t even know of the existence of the Orthodox Church. Yet, whatever happens, it will be the fault of the US. It used to be the fault of the British. But, it will always be somebody else’s fault!

      • Veras Coltroupis says

        Three decades ago I dated a Huguenot girl who told me her Greek friends preferred the liturgy in Greek so they wouldn’t understand the perverse things like anti-semitism. Ironic because the anti-semitic services were imposed by the crusaders.

  55. Gail Sheppard says

    What does Poroshenko mean when he says, “We know that Ukrainians have prayed for hundreds of years to have an *independent* Orthodox Church in Ukraine?” Does Poroshenko know that an “independent church” would no longer be Orthodox?

    https://www.unian.info/society/10264380-poroshenko-meets-with-orthodox-envoys-dispatched-for-independent-church-preparations-video.html

    • Joseph Lipper says

      Gail Sheppard,

      Does the MP realize that breaking communion with the EP over this Ukrainian autocephaly makes Moscow’s own “Orthodoxy” questionable?

      Metropolitan Onuphrey says “the Church is not a political organization”, however that’s exactly how the Moscow Patriarchate is coming across after this schism they’ve initiated last Friday.

      • Willy Der Wentzel says

        Are you another Canon Lawyer like Mr. Frost? You want Canon Law, what about the priest here who said he enjoys going to synagogues to recite the Psalms in Hebrew? He’s violating Canon Law, yet not even a single cleric of any rank has called him on it. Of course, PATRIARCHS have also violated the Canons by praying with heretics and non-Christians. Only when politics get involved do we begin to invoke the Canons.

      • Relax, Joseph. This happened before. It is actually how Russia became autocephalous; Constantinople left the Church for Rome.

        It happens.

        Russia will remain Orthodox. Ask the 11 patriarchs who support it in Ukraine.

        • Joseph Lipper says

          Misha, yes thank you. I know Russia and Constantinople have broken communion before, as with the situation in Estonia. This conflict in Ukraine is much bigger, though, and I don’t think it’s as straightforward as Moscow’s propaganda machine makes it out to be.

          Yes, right now there are maybe a dozen heads of autocephalous churches that “side” with Moscow, but I don’t believe any of them have joined in with ceasing to pray for the EP. Will they join in? I’m not convinced they will.

  56. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from yesterday on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    PHANAR ENVOYS’ PLANS. KIEV CAVES LAVRA?
    Nazar Golovko

    http://orthochristian.com/115795.html

  57. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from Friday on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    UKRAINIAN SCHISMATICS MUST REPENT AND RETURN BEFORE TALK OF AUTOCEPHALY—POLISH ORTHODOX CHURCH
    Warsaw, September 14, 2018

    http://orthochristian.com/115750.html

  58. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article posted on the OCL Facebook website.

    Archpriest Nikolay Balashov: There is a consensus on the principal points of granting autocephaly
    Source: Russian Orthodox Church Department for External Church Relations
    Originally published on May 23, 2018

    BY WEBMASTER ON SEPTEMBER 13, 2018
    GOVERNANCE & UNITY NEWS, 
    GOVERNANCE TOP STORIES

    http://ocl.org/archpriest-nikolay-balashov-there-is-a-consensus-on-the-principal-points-of-granting-autocephaly/

  59. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from today on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    WE ARE ON AN “EXTRAORDINARY MISSION” CONSTANTINOPLE EXARCHS TELL POROSHENKO
    Kiev, September 18, 2018

    http://orthochristian.com/115834.html

  60. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find another article from today on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    VISA WARS: CONSTANTINOPLE OPENS A NEW FRONT AGAINST RUSSIAN PRIESTS
    Roman Silantyev

    http://orthochristian.com/115840.html

  61. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find yet another article from today on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    CONSTANTINOPLE EXARCHS IN UKRAINE COULD BE PLANNING TO RECONSECRATE SCHISMATIC BISHOPS—MET. HILARION (ALFEYEV)
    Moscow, September 18, 2018

    http://orthochristian.com/115833.html

  62. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from today on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    UKRAINIAN MEDIA REPORTING FALSE INFO ON CANONICAL BISHOPS SUPPORTING AUTOCEPHALY

    http://orthochristian.com/115837.html

  63. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find another article from today on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    PUSH FOR UKRAINIAN AUTOCEPHALY IS A POLITICAL ATTACK—MET. HILARION OF ROCOR
    New York, September 19, 2018

    http://orthochristian.com/115835.html

  64. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from today on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    GOVERNMENTAL AND NATIONALISTIC PROVOCATIONS AGAINST KIEV CAVES AND POCHAEV LAVRAS UNDERWAY
    Kiev, September 19, 2018

    http://orthochristian.com/115855.html

  65. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from today on the Union of Orthodox Journalists website.

    Abbot of Kiev Lavra tells of imminent provocations against the monastery
    19 September 2018, 19:15  Editorial board UOJ

    http://spzh.news/en/news/56041-namestnik-kijevskoj-lavry-soobshhil-o-gotovyashhihsya-protiv-obiteli-provokacijah

  66. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from yesterday on the Southern Poverty Law Center website.

    HATEWATCH
    The strange alliance between Russian Orthodox monarchists, American Christian Evangelicals and European fascists
    September 18, 2018
    by Hatewatch Staff

    https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/09/18/strange-alliance-between-russian-orthodox-monarchists-american-christian-evangelicals-and

  67. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from today on the Tass website.

    Putin takes part in blessing of foundation stone of Russian Army’s main cathedral
    Society & Culture
    September 19, 18:00
    The Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Kirill I conducted the service of consecration of the stone

    http://tass.com/society/1022366

  68. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from Friday on the Religious Information Service of Ukraine website.

    GREEKS PUBLISH RECORDS OF CONVERSATION BETWEEN PATRIARCHS BARTHOLOMEW AND KIRILL
    28 September 2018, 14:59 | Orthodox world

    https://risu.org.ua/en/index/all_news/orthodox/orthodox_world/72832/

  69. Bishop Tikhon (Fitzgerald) says

    “America doesn’t even know of the existence of the Orthodox Church?” The State Department does and has done for a long time! I well remember Athenagoras of blessed memory being flown by the State Dept. to Istanbul after being elected Patriarch by the Sacred Synod there! Of course I am not the one claiming the U.S. funds Poroshenko, Patriarch Bartholomew, etc! Nor do I deny it!

  70. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from today on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    “THE PATRIARCHATE THAT ONCE CONDEMNED CHURCH NATIONALISM IS NOW BEING EATEN AWAY BY IT”A conversation with church historian Vladislav Igorevich Petrushko

    Yuri Pushchaev, Vladislav Igorevich Petrushk

    http://orthochristian.com/116154.html

  71. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from today on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    “THE CHURCH DOES NOT BOW TO POLITICIANS”—PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA
    Bolgrad, October 3, 2018

    http://orthochristian.com/116202.html

  72. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find another article from today on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    KIEV COURT TO CONSIDER SUIT ABOUT PRESIDENT’S INTERFERENCE IN CHURCH AFFAIRS
    Kiev, October 3, 2018

    http://orthochristian.com/116197.html

  73. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find yet another article from today on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    ESTONIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH CONDEMNS CONSTANTINOPLE’S INTERFERENCE IN UKRAINE
    Tallinn, Estonia, October 3, 2018

    http://orthochristian.com/116190.html

  74. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from today on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    PATRIARCH KIRILL WRITES TO PRIMATES OF ALL LOCAL CHURCHES ABOUT UKRAINIAN SITUATION
    Moscow, October 4, 2018

    http://orthochristian.com/116214.html

  75. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from Monday on The Tablet website – The International Catholic News Weekly from the UK.

    News
    Headlines
    01 October 2018 | by Jonathan Luxmoore
    Inter-Orthodox feud deepens over Ukraine

    https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/10803/inter-orthodox-feud-deepens-over-ukraine

  76. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from today on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    BULGARIAN CHURCH: INTERFERENCE IN CHURCH LIFE IS NEGATIVE FOR BOTH CHURCH AND STATE
    Sofia, October 4, 2018

    http://orthochristian.com/116234.html

  77. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from today on the Orthodox Christianity website.

    HEAD OF POLISH CHURCH CALLS FOR PAT. BARTHOLOMEW TO CONVENE INTER-ORTHODOX SYNAXIS ABOUT UKRAINE
    Warsaw, October 5, 2018

    http://orthochristian.com/116245.html

  78. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from yesterday on the Interfax-Religion website.

    2018-10-04 12:23:00
    Church is the forth in trust rating in Russia – poll

    http://www.interfax-religion.com/print.php?act=news&id=14525

  79. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from Wednesday on the Sputnik News website.

    Russian Patriarch Writes to Orthodox Churches’ Heads on ‘Ukrainian Autocephaly’
    RUSSIA
    07:04 03.10.2018

    https://sputniknews.com/russia/201810031068538921-russia-ukraine-church-orthodox/