Browsing: Ukraine

Source: Union of Orthodox Journalists Elena Konstantinova Patriarch Bartholomew did not allow Metropolitan Kipriyan to serve in the church of Sts Constantine and Helena in Adrianople. Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople did not allow Metropolitan Kipriyan of Stara Zagora of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church to perform the Divine Liturgy in the church of Saints Constantine and Helena of the Bulgarian community in the city of Adrianople in Turkey, the Greek site Romfea reports. The publication notes that the Bulgarian community of the city of Adrianople is under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, thus permission and blessing of the Ecumenical Patriarchate must be…

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Source: Orthodox Christianity [Athens] As they have already done several times, the hierarchs of the Greek Church have again postponed discussion of the Ukrainian ecclesiastical issue, according to sources within the Greek Orthodox Church. Yesterday, the Telegram channel of the Moscow Patriarchal press service, “Church Today,” reported, citing its own sources within the Greek Church, that the hierarchs would not discuss Ukraine at the upcoming session of the Bishops’ Council, which will open on October 8. This report comes after the Permanent Holy Synod of the Greek Church met in Athens on October 1, and, according to Greek sources, was “seeking…

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Source: Orthodox Christianity [Lastva Grbaljska, Montenegro] – The Serbian Orthodox Church is equal to the ancient Churches of Jerusalem, Antioch, and Constantinople and the rest, and the Church of Christ does not divide along ethnic lines, His Holiness Patriarch Irinej of Serbia and His Eminence Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro said at recent celebrations at the Podlastva Monastery of the Nativity of the Mother of God in Montenegro. Celebrating the 800th anniversary of the autocephaly of the Serbian Church and the 1,500th anniversary of the monastery on Saturday, September 28, His Holiness stated that “today is a great and blessed day. Eight…

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Source: The National Herald By Theodore Kalmoukos More than a year or so ago I had written on the issue of granting Autocephaly to the Church of Ukraine. We are revisiting the issue today because of the unholy games that some prelates of the ancient and new Patriarchates and from the Autocephalous Churches continue to play by attacking the very heart of the Orthodox Church, the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Many things have come to light, and many individuals, including patriarchs, archbishops, metropolitans, and priests, have been exposed. It is really interesting to see the masks falling, revealing the faces behind them.…

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Source: Orthodox Christianity Background [Athens] – One of the biggest battlegrounds in the Ukrainian Church Crisis has been whether or not the Church of Greece will recognize the Ukrainian schismatics. The latest news on the matter came on August 29, when it was reported that the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece recognizes the right of the Phanar to “grant autocephalies” but also stopped short of specifically recognizing the Ukrainian schismatics. The issue of recognizing the schismatic OCU within the Greek Church is highly polarizing, unlike in the Polish or Serbian Churches where there is virtual unanimity among the bishops. Some…

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Source: Orthodox Christianity As schismatic groups seem to be popping up on the territory of canonical Churches like mushrooms, we have to ask: Is it all happening by itself, or is someone carefully cultivating it? The following investigation of a strange situation in Northern Cyprus can only leave us wondering… *   *   * “A large number of religious and secular media in a series of countries are stormily discussing the situation in the religious sphere in Cyprus, while for the Cypriots themselves this has practically become subject No. 1. Front and center is the schismatic clergyman Alexei Ivanov, who opened…

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Source: Orthodox Synaxis The Greek original with the list of signatories can be found here. Your Beatitude, Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece, Most Reverend Metropolitans of the Church of Greece, Your Beatitude, Your Eminences, As members of the Orthodox Church and, in spirit, children of Your episcopal-fatherly responsibility, we feel the need to address You as our spiritual and ecclesiastical Fathers and to express our unease and distress over the uncanonical granting of Ukrainian autocephaly. We share Your anguish and serious ecclesiological and canonical hesitations and reservations as they have been stated expressly or even silently according to the…

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Source: Union of Orthodox Journalists Protopriest Andrey Nikolaidi How many canons were violated by the Patriarchate of Constantinople by creating a parallel jurisdiction in Ukraine. The modern ecclesiastic situation in Ukraine, provoked by the actions of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, appears as a crucial challenge vis-à-vis the plentitude of World Orthodoxy. One option is to accept the point of view of Constantinople and finally destroy the canonical law system that has developed on the foundation of the apostolic vision of the Church. The other is to remain faithful to Orthodox ecclesiology and reject Phanar’s unilateral actions. Despite the fact that Constantinople positions itself…

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Source: Union of Orthodox Journalists Taras Rebikov In an attempt to justify its concelebration with the Ukrainian schismatics, Constantinople descends to a distortion of facts and a blatant lie. The most inexplicable story in the history of the creation of the OCU for the Orthodox World was the question of how the Phanar was going to solve the obvious problem of the “hierarchs” of the UOC-KP and UAOC having no canonical ordinations. In the autumn and winter of 2018, when it became clear that the Patriarchate of Constantinople was determined to give autocephaly to the schismatic structures, there were various…

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Source: Orthodox Christianity [Corfu, Greece] His Eminence Metropolitan Agafangel of Odessa and Izmail and His Eminence Archbishop Diodore of Yuzhne of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are currently on pilgrimage to Corfu, where they venerated the relics of the great St. Spyridon and also paid a visit to His Eminence Metropolitan Nektarios of Corfu, Paxoi, and the Diapontian Islands. During their time together, the Greek hierarch assured his Ukrainian brothers that he and his diocese recognize only one canonical Ukrainian Church—that under His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine, reports the press service of the Odessa Diocese. “We are pleased…

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Source: Orthodox Christianity KIEV – The Greek Orthodox Church does not want to enter into a direct confrontation with the Patriarchate of Constantinople, but clearly understands that for any Local Church to recognize the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” (OCU) would be to divide the Orthodox world into two parts, Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich, Deputy Head of the canonical Ukrainian Church’s Department for External Church Relations, commented in an interview with First Cossack, reports the Union of Orthodox Journalists. “The text of the Synod’s decision became the basis for some news agencies to say that the Greek Church recognized the means of…

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Source: Interfax It is not a secret that not only faithful of the Russian Orthodox Church, but all zealous adherents of Orthodox plenitude considered a hard strike the conciliatory and permissive position taken by the majority of inhabitants of the honored for centuries among church people Mount Athos on Constantinople’s monstrous actions taken from August 2018 on recognizing Ukrainian schism and entering in full church communication and unity, especially liturgical, with schismatics. The Constantinople Patriarchate roughly violated all canonical and moral norms, it has not “legitimated” schism, but it has thrown itself into illegal schismatic abyss, supporting secular persecutors of…

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