Orthodox Archbishop: We're Internally Divided on Question of 'Primacy'

There are different organizational forms -- and these arose due to historical reasons. The first patriarchies were mainly in the East except for Rome. Then Rome fell to the Visigoths and was cut off from the East

Hence Rome had to have a stronger organizational structure, a stronger administration as it could not rely on the Imperial structure that the East could

the bishop of rome was always the spiritual first among equals. During the first few centuries the Patriarchs of Antioch and Alexandria played an important role too as did the Patriarch of Constantinople. The Patriarch of Rome did provide the primus inter pares role as a deciding factor thanks to God's grace in many ways

If you mean the main Orthodox Churches today, with the exception of Constantinople and Greece, the rest are offshoots of Greece.

When squabbles and disputes broke out in the first few centuries the decisions were taken in council -- yes the Bishop of Rome played a "most respected" role.

to the point of today -- this dispute that we are discussing here is really about administration. I argue that the de-centralized form of Orthodoxy is good when the entire country is united -- then to be Russian you must be Orthodox, ditto for the Serbs, Romanians etc. and I argue centralised form of Catholicism makes sense when the government is against Christianity -- as we compare the state of the Church in Poland compared to say Estonia or Belarus (Lutheran and Orthodox respectively).

Both administration methods had their uses, but this is a new era and we need to remember the case of our Coptic brethren -- in the early years of the Islamic conquest of Egypt, to be Egyptian meant to be Christian. But the Moslems slowly Arabized the land. Then it became, to be Arabic, you must be Moslem. Hence the method of tying religion to a cultural domain failed unless you change that person's culture (incidently the Catholics in India until recently rejected Hindu culture, making them almost aliens in their own land, but now it is changing).

imho living here in Poland, the question of the Ukraine is tricky. the Ukrainians are technically not one people but many different peoples who have not had the chance to build a unifying national culture as they were sandwiched and exchanged between two strong states for centuries: Poland-Lithuania and Muscovy.

The eastern half of Ukraine, east of the Dnieper is Russian in ethnicity and the western half is mostly ukrainian. But you go to a village near Lwów for example and ask them if they feel Russian or Ukrainian or Polish and they say "none, we are from here only".

This is technically "open land" and for Hilarion to be seen to "give up" would immediately turn Russian people, devout or otherwise against him.

little baby steps have to be taken, we cannot expect a sudden movement to undo a millenia of misunderstandings.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.