Source: Religion News Service While the Orthodox Church of Ukraine’s letter is addressed to the Ecumenical Patriarch, the letter speaks to concerns for the entire global Orthodox Christian community. By Marika Proctor (RNS) — Metropolitan Epiphanius, the head of the independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine, has issued a letter to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, “first among equals” of Orthodox Christian leaders, asking Bartholomew to call Patriarch Kirill, leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, a teacher of heresy for his theological backing of the Ukraine war and deprive Kirill of his right to lead the Russian church. The letter was approved at a meeting of…
Head of the Ukrainian Church Metropolitan Epiphanius, left, and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, right, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, lead a Divine Liturgy at St. Sofia Cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Aug. 22, 2021. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)