On January 24, a Roundtable on the topic: “Ukraine: Autocephaly and the War that Changed the World” was held in Athens, organized by the Association for the Promotion of Greek and Orthodox Culture “Aenaos” through “Orthodoxia inforum”.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Patriarch Theodore of Alexandria took part in the work of the round table via video link, and the discussion was attended by Australian Archbishop Macarius, Metropolitans Gregory of Cameroon, Chrysostom of Messinia, Gabriel of New Ionia and Hieronymus of Laris, the former Deputy Prime Minister and Professor of Constitutional Law Evangelos Venizelos, together with the journalists Maria Antoniadou, Nikola Vafiadis, Adamantia Lellou and others.
Cameroonian Metropolitan Grigory gave details of the operation of the “Russian Exarchy” in Africa, which was organized as a punitive action by Moscow due to the recognition of Ukrainian autocephaly by the Patriarch of Alexandria. The Metropolitan defined this activity on the African continent as destructive for the Church: “Russia has experience in Africa. It is the continent’s largest arms supplier and unofficially supplies rebel groups. There are official connections with the authorities and unofficial with the underworld. What is happening to the Church is a political game. When the Russians came, they did three things: they offered money, they spoke against the Greeks, and they promoted the idea of priests serving without bishops. This is something unique to the church tradition! They make those who go to the so-called Russian exarchate to swear that they will consciously work without a bishop and fulfill their duties. Their goal is to smash everything. Not to create something new. They made many promises to the locals but delivered very little. All this has been tried and applied many times”.
In turn, Patriarch Bartholomew emphasized the non-Orthodox ecclesiology propagated by the Moscow Patriarchate. Here’s his full Roundtable speech:
“It is my pleasure to address the participants in this interesting event on the topic: “Ukraine: Autocephaly and the War That Changed the World.” I want to point out at the very beginning that the granting of autocephalous status to the Church in Ukraine, which “changed” in the spirit of the canonical tradition the church affairs in this country, has no connection, direct or indirect, with the geopolitical facts and with the inadmissible invasion of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, which truly “tragically changed the world”, causing untold suffering and terrible catastrophes. The leadership of the Russian Church artificially connects this war with the Ukrainian autocephaly in order to hide its responsibility, erroneous church actions and huge ambitions. It is she who is widening the gap between Ukrainians and Russians, not the autocephaly granted by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, for which we were driven above all by pastoral concern for God’s people who are suffering there. The reaction of the leadership of the Russian Church against autocephaly has neither pastoral nor ecclesiological grounds, but stems from an atavistic syndrome of imposing on the Ukrainian people and the lack of a healthy church consciousness.
The Holy Great Church of Christ reached out to Moscow for cooperation in order to find a way out of the impasse in the church problem of Ukraine in the spirit of love and based on the canons, but these efforts failed due to the fault of the Russian side. Moscow is silent on this for understandable reasons. Unfortunately, after our Patriarchate granted the Ukrainian autocephaly, some Orthodox church circles are proposing to convene a synaxis (meeting) of Orthodox superiors on a matter that has already been finally decided based on Orthodox canonical tradition and long-standing church practice. Instead of calling for a pan-Orthodox synaxis, the Orthodox churches should recognize Ukrainian autocephaly as soon as possible, following the example of the Greek Church, the Patriarchate of Alexandria and the Church of Cyprus.
Meanwhile, Moscow continues to use social networks and the Internet as a means, but not only, to insult our humility, as well as to make unacceptable attempts to harm and discredit the Ecumenical Patriarchate at all levels in order to create emergency situations to use in his own interest. We have already mentioned it on other occasions: the leadership of the Moscow Church is trying to impose a new ecclesiology that cancels the established canonical order based on allegedly new facts. However, she must understand that the Ecumenical Patriarchate is the only guarantee for the unity of Orthodoxy. “Without the Ecumenical Patriarchate,” as His Eminence Metropolitan John of Pergamum writes, “Orthodoxy will fall into the whirlwind of nationalisms, glorification of the past, introspection of self-sufficiency, contempt for the modern world.”
For example, turning the Eucharist into a tool to achieve some goals shows that the Church in Moscow subordinates the quintessence, the core of church life to its unethical plans. Perhaps this is her unpardonable sin against the Holy Spirit. He pressed for the convening of a “fraternal meeting” in Amman, bypassing church canons, but without success. And now he continues to accuse the Ecumenical Patriarchate of allegedly being responsible for the tension in Orthodox relations, while at the same time it is the Moscow Church that, in addition to our Patriarchate, has severed communion with the three autocephalous churches that recognized Ukrainian autocephaly. It is she who illegally entered the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Alexandria and caused turmoil and tension throughout the world, compromising the image of Orthodoxy in the eyes of the rest of Christendom.
The leadership of the Russian Church believes that the intervention of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the Ukrainian case has led to a schism in Orthodoxy. For us, the discussion about a schism in Orthodoxy because of Ukrainian autocephaly is untenable. The granting and recognition of the autocephaly of the Church of Ukraine is a significant contribution to the unity of Orthodoxy, being a practical expression of Orthodox ecclesiology, the relevant decisions of the ecumenical councils and church practice over the centuries. It is the actions of the Russian Church that threaten the unity of Orthodoxy, not the response of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the demand of Ukrainian Orthodox Christians for a return to canonicity and autocephaly.
In response to the accusations of the leadership of the Moscow Church, we would like to emphasize that it is the Moscow Church that has “papal” claims, not the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Moscow does not recognize the right of the Orthodox people of Ukraine to have its own autocephalous church because it wants to control it. He wants to turn the Orthodox Church into a confederation of churches in order to later claim a leading role in the “new Orthodox order”. We are sure that all these things – the invasion of Ukraine, the unacceptable attitude of the leadership of the Moscow Church towards the fratricidal war and in general its frankly arrogant and hegemonic mentality – will emphasize once again the central role of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the Orthodox world.
Our Patriarchate granted autocephalous status to the Church of Ukraine with the motive and purpose of restoring the canonical order, normalizing church life and promoting pan-Orthodox unity. She intervened, as she has done in the past, to resolve a long-standing problem created by the Russian Church after exhausting all options for dialogue with it. The Moscow Church wished to preserve the canonical anomaly in Ukraine for its own benefit, without considering the suffering of the Ukrainian people. The truth is that the Russian church leadership is not interested in the unity of Orthodoxy on an ecclesiological basis, but sees the Church as a secular institution and wants to push the principles of nationalism into Orthodoxy. It is for this reason that we insist that the granting of autocephaly to the Church of Ukraine was the only correct ecclesiastical decision.
Ukrainian autocephaly is a fait accompli that no disputes, no propaganda, pressure, war or anything else can cancel. The tomos was given before God and the Church, as it was given to the other churches by the mother church in Constantinople. Unfortunately, this is forgotten in many circles, sometimes deliberately. The Church of Moscow not only rejects the historical facts, namely that it was the first to receive autocephaly and patriarchal dignity from the mother church in Constantinople, but even today it relentlessly strives for matricide…
We have all witnessed the tragedy and humanitarian disaster that has been unfolding on Ukrainian soil for exactly eleven months now, with incalculable consequences for the suffering people of Ukraine, for the European continent and for the whole world. A ceasefire must be reached immediately and a sincere dialogue must be initiated to reach a solution based on the principles of international law.
We call on those Orthodox Autocephalous Churches that have not yet done so to proceed with the recognition of the Autocephalous Church of Ukraine, and by this decision also express their support for the people of Ukraine; and the leadership of the Moscow Church must humbly ask for mercy and forgiveness from the Lord of the Church for the suffering it has caused and continues to cause to Orthodoxy.
At the end of our speech, we return to the question with which we began: the insinuations of a connection between Russia’s invasion of an independent and sovereign Ukraine and the autocephaly granted by the Ecumenical Patriarchate are the product of a sick imagination mixed with many other fake news to covered up the crime that is being committed today in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian people know that the uncontrollable state of church affairs in their country before the granting of autocephaly was created and maintained by the Russian Church in order to have control over events, applying the principle of “divide and rule.”
The Ukrainian Orthodox people will never accept that their church should continue to be subordinated to the Moscow Patriarchate, which blessed with both hands the bloody invasion of their homeland.”
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