Source: Orthodox Times By Efi Efthimiou Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana and All Albania drew a parallel of the decision of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to grant the Tomos of Autocephaly to the Church of Ukraine with the illegal intrusion of the Russian Orthodox Church in the boundaries of the Patriarchate of Alexandria. In an article published today by the head of the Church of Albania, Archbishop Anastasios does not condemn the decision of the Moscow Patriarchate to establish an “Exarchate of Africa” with the acquisition of more than 100 clergymen of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, but on the contrary, “justifies” this decision as…
Browsing: Moscow Patriarchate
Source: Public Orthodoxy by Robert C. Blitt Russia’s constitutional amendments of 2020 augur an ever-enlarging foreign policy role for the Russian Orthodox Church—Moscow Patriarchate (ROC). Constitutional entrenchment of the Kremlin’s selective understanding of state sovereignty and non-interference; a state-sanctioned vision of historical truth; the muscular protection of compatriot rights abroad; and the propagation of traditional values each tap into areas where the church has steadfastly advocated Russian civilization as a global counterweight to the West’s “ultra-liberalism.” Faced with this emerging reality, policymakers should reassess the nature and substance of their interactions with church officials and take measures to scrutinize ROC activities…
Source: Orthodox Christianity [Paris] The Archdiocese of Russian Churches in Western Europe, which largely voted to follow its hierarch, His Eminence Archbishop John of Dubna, into the Moscow Patriarchate recently, is already experiencing the fruits of this new life. Yesterday, Abp. John, who was unceremoniously released from the Patriarchate of Constantinople without warning and soon thereafter received by the Russian Church, published an address to his flock, announcing the upcoming Archbishop’s Council and General Assembly of the Archdiocese and the election of two vicar bishops. Abp. John lamented in an interview in February that while he is getting older, Constantinople never permitted the Archdiocese to elect and consecrate new…
Source: Orthodox Christianity [PARIS] On August 31, the central office of the Archdiocese of Russian Churches in Western Europe issued a communiqué in preparation for its upcoming General Assembly on September 7, outlining three points to be discussed as proposed by the Archdiocesan Council. The three points were: Acceptance of the proposed act of canonical communion with the Moscow Patriarchate; Following a meeting with the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the setting up of a bilateral dialogue in order to re-examine the possibility of a new ecclesial structure for the Archdiocese; The large-scale reforming of the Archdiocese as an autonomous structure, as…
Source: The Russian Orthodox Church Department of External Relations According to the official website of the Bulgarian Patriarchate, on March 7, 2019, Metropolitan Daniel of Vidin, a hierarch of this Church, sent a letter to His Holiness Patriarch Neophyte of Bulgaria and members of the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church presenting his arguments against the Patriarch of Constantinople’s claims to primacy of power in the Orthodox world, especially against the decision to revoke the 1686 act on transfer of the Metropolia of Kiev to the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate and against Phanar’s opinion on its alleged right to…
Source: OrthoChristian.com by Kirill Alexandrov A comparison of the relationship of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church with the Moscow Patriarchate and the “Holy Church of Ukraine” with the Phanar. Petro Poroshenko and Epiphany Dumenko have received their desired tomos. Already well before that, the majority of religious experts argued that the Phanar would never give the Ukrainian Church true autocephaly, and that’s what happened. Even the most ardent supporters of autocephaly have to admit that the Ukrainian so-called autocephaly has a number of very significant restrictions. They also expressed the opinion that the new Ukrainian Church, which will be called autocephalous, will in…
Source: Sputnik News MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia urged the primates of all the Local Orthodox Churches to launch a general discussion of the issue with the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Nikolai Balashov, the deputy chair of the Moscow Patriarchate’s External Church Relations Department, told Sputnik on Tuesday. “The letters outlined the position of the Russian Orthodox Church on the issue of the so-called Ukrainian autocephaly and the possible negative consequences of the actions of the Patriarchate of Constantinople for the unity of the ecumenical Orthodoxy. They also included the proposal to undertake efforts to initiate the discussion of the current situation among all the…
Source: ERR Cornelius, the Metropolitan bishop of Tallinn and All Estonia and head of the Estonian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate, died at age 93 on Thursday. The church announced his death on social media on Thursday afternoon. Metropolitan Cornelius was born Vjatšeslav Vassiljevitš Jakobs in Tallinn on June 19, 1924. From 1960-1990, Cornelius served as a priest (high priest beginning in 1966) at the Church of St. John the Forerunner in Tallinn’s Nõmme District. From 1990-1992, Cornelius bore the title of Bishop of Tallinn and Estonia, from 1992-1995 the title of Bishop of Tallinn and All Estonia, from 1995-2000 the title of Archbishop of Tallinn…
Source: The National Herald By Theodore Kalmoukos BOSTON, MA – The Moscow Patriarchate’s Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, spoke with TNH about the Orthodox Church’s Holy and Great Council, scheduled to begin on June 16 in Chania, Crete. Essentially, Metropolitan Hilarion is first in ranking after His Beatitude Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia. The interview follows. TNH: Your Eminence, what are your thoughts about the upcoming Holy and Great Council? MH: The Holy and Great Council ought to be the most wide-ranging and representative of the Councils of the past thousand years. It was been in direct preparation for more…
Source: Interfax Russian Church likens attacks on Orthodox Ukrainians to Soviet-era persecutions Moscow, August 26, Interfax – The Moscow Patriarchate has expressed concern over the seizing of Orthodox churches in Ukraine and criticized its law enforcement authorities for inaction. “Over the past year since the civil standoff began in Ukraine, dozens of clergymen representing the Ukrainian Orthodox Church have been attacked, many dozens of churches have been seized or set ablaze. For some of the clerics, the violence shown towards them by their attackers proved fatal,” head of the Synodal Information Department Vladimir Legoyda was quoted by his spokesperson as…
Source: Pravmir On 31 March 2015, the first meeting of the bilateral commission which will consider the possibility of recognizing the hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church took place at the Moscow Spiritual Centre of the Old Believers of the Belokrinitsa branch in the Rogozhskaya Settlement. The commission was established on the initiative of Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, and Metropolitan Korniliy of Moscow and All Russia, head of the Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church. Representing the Moscow Patriarchate at the meeting were archpriest Vladislav Tsypin, professor of the Moscow Theological…
Source: Voices from Russia The website of Novospassky Monastery noted that on 5 February, a Greek Orthodox Church delegation, headed by Metropolitan Panteleimon Kalpakidis of Veria and Naousa arrived in Moscow from Greece bringing a reliquary containing the hand of St Demetrios of Salonika the Great Martyr. At the airport, the superior of the Novospassky Stavropegial Monastery and the MP First Deputy Chancellor, Bishop Savva Mikheyev of Voskresensk met the delegation. From the airport, they took the reliquary to the Novospassky Monastery, where the clergy served a molieben at the Church of the Intercession of the Mother of God. St Demetrios is the patron saint of…