Patriarch Theophilus III of Jerusalem
Source: Orthodoxy in Dialogue
Following the rubles seems to be a reliable predictor of where a given Patriarchate will stand on the question of Ukrainian autocephaly.
A May 19, 2019 report by Russia’s Union of Orthodox “Journalists”—arguably the Moscow Patriarchate’s most loyal peddler of propaganda after the Department for External Church Relations itself—cites the following statement by Patriarch Theophilus III of Jerusalem, delivered by his proxy to the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society and published on the Patriarchate’s website.
The Patriarch’s statement is remarkable for two reasons: first, while Jerusalem is lauded as “the Mother of the Churches” in our liturgical hymnography, we question where in Orthodox tradition the Patriarchate derives its self-designation as the guarantor of the unity of the Orthodox Church; and second, Theophilus makes no attempt to hide his reliance on Russian money as he heaps praise on Vladimir Putin and—as the UOJ is keen to point out—rejects the autocephaly of, and eucharistic communion with, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine….read full article here
