Thank you for the clarification. As I said this topic is a bit outside my field of knowledge. But I knew the word autocephaly :-) so I thought I understood the gist of the story. Thank you I appreciate your filling us in on more of the backstory.
Do you think it has more to do with Russian-Ukrainian politics, or is it a power play maneuver to increase the number of Synods in the Eastern Orthodox Church? Do they vote on such matters or is it up to discretion of the Patriarch of Constantinople?
Patriarch Bartholomew, and Constantinople in general, has been under extreme pressure from Turkey for a long time, which has been turning up the heat: Turkey basically wants Christians gone. So it's natural for Constantinople to seek Western allies; alas, it appears that the protectors it's sought out right now are demanding their pound of flesh. The Patriarch has the honor of being "first among equals" among the Orthodox hierarchs, but doesn't actually have authority or powers not possessed by other local churches. HOWEVER, Constantinople has started to claim such authority over time, to the consternation of the other jurisdictions. With the unilateral appointment of deposed clerics to head a new autocephalous church on another jurisdiction's historical territory, the Patriarch has apparently declared himself "Pope of the East," with the authority to create and dissolve local jurisdictions around the world. With that we lurch squarely towards Great Schism territory, so it's a very big deal for the Orthodox world. Western powers playing Cold War games don't care about any of this, of course; they're just interested in who "gets" Ukraine so they can keep score.