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Russian Orthodox Church Accuses Constantinople of Treachery, Threatens Breakup......
Interfax ^ | 9/8/18

Posted on 09/10/2018 7:07:50 PM PDT by marshmallow

Moscow, September 8, Interfax - Church diplomacy has exhausted itself in the dialogue with the Church of Constantinople over the Ukrainian issue, the Moscow Patriarchate said.

"Apparently, means of the church diplomacy have by now been exhausted," Metropolitan Hilarion, the head of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations, told the television channel Rossiya-24 on Saturday.

A few days ago Patriarch Kill travelled to Istanbul to meet with Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, he said.

"On the outside, it was quite a civil, polite and even fraternal meeting. But unfortunately the Constantinople side not only failed to heed our arguments, but it even acted, in our view, ignobly and treacherously," Metropolitan Hilarion said.

If the Ukrainian schismatics are granted autocephaly, the relations with the Patriarchate of Constantinople will be severed, he said.

"If Constantinople carries out its perfidious plan to grant autocephaly, it means that a group of schismatics will obtain autocephaly. The canonical church will not accept this autocephaly, we the Russian Church will not recognize this autocephaly, of course, and we will have no other choice but to severe ties with Constantinople," Metropolitan Hilarion said.

"The Patriarch of Constantinople will no longer have any right to be styled as he is now, the leader of the 300 million Orthodox population of the planet," he said. "At least half this population will not recognize him at all," he said.

It is no accident that the Patriarch of Constantinople is in such a hurry: "he understands that the days of the current Ukrainian government are numbered, he understands that there will be elections next spring, and it is quite probable that a new force will come to power," which will no longer subscribe to Constantinople, he said. "They are trying to wrap up their sinister deal as quickly as possible," Metropolitan Hilarion said.

How long it will take the Russian Church to retaliate will depend on how soon the schism is legitimized, he said.

It was reported that a day earlier the Patriarchate of Constantinople appointed two exarchs in Kiev as part of preparations to grant autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. Such was Constantinople's response to the request by President Petro Poroshenko to issue a tomos for the creation of the united local church in Ukraine.

At a synaxis with archbishops in Istanbul on September 1 Patriarch Bartholomew said that he assumed the initiative to overcome Ukrainian schism "since Russia, as the one responsible for the current painful situation in Ukraine, is unable to solve the problem." He motivated his decision by requests from the Ukrainian government and the leader of the self-proclaimed "Kiev Patriarchate".


TOPICS: Current Events; Orthodox Christian
KEYWORDS: kgb; putinsbuttboys
Full title: Russian Orthodox Church accuses Constantinople of treachery, threatens breakup in case of recognition of Ukrainian autocephaly
1 posted on 09/10/2018 7:07:50 PM PDT by marshmallow
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To: marshmallow

Why did Constantinople get the works?


2 posted on 09/10/2018 7:13:54 PM PDT by null and void (McCain is dead but the A-10 lives on.)
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To: marshmallow

It amazes me that it continues to operate from Istanbul. You’d think the office would have moved to a locale that’s actually part of European Christendom. Athens would make a lot of sense.


3 posted on 09/10/2018 7:15:22 PM PDT by Zhang Fei (They can have my pitbull when they pry his cold dead jaws off my ass.)
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To: marshmallow

Bkmrk.


4 posted on 09/10/2018 7:20:32 PM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear
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To: marshmallow; lightman; NRx

......Such was Constantinople’s response to the request by President Petro Poroshenko to issue a tomos for the creation of the united local church in Ukraine...

What business is it of Petro Poroshenko—a secular official—to meddle in Church affairs?

PHOOEY!!!!


5 posted on 09/10/2018 7:43:35 PM PDT by Honorary Serb (Kosovo is Serbia! Free Srpska! Abolish ICTY!)
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To: Honorary Serb

Ukrainian Church leaders..like Patriarch Filaret has been wanting this since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Kiev and Moscow have been in conflict for centuries before that.

This will be a blessing not only to Ukraine, but European Christianity at large. And hopefully the next roundup of Moscow patriarchate leadership will serve Jesus Christ, not the Kremlin.


6 posted on 09/10/2018 8:03:58 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Have* been wanting autocephaly I meant.


7 posted on 09/10/2018 8:50:24 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: CondoleezzaProtege; Ad Orientam; antonius; aposiopetic; arielguard; bad company; blinachka; ...

This is larger than just Ukraine vs. Russia.

The Ecumenical Patriarch (EP) is struggling to maintain legitimacy while surrounded by an increasing hostile militant secularist/militant Islamist government.

The big question is, “why does the EP fail to act in the struggle of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem vs the Patriarchate of Antioch over Dubai (and other issues)—while eagerly intervening in the Ukraine?”

The 2017 meeting in Crete may well be a foreshadowing of Orthodoxy first internal schism: Moscow and Antioch (plus many autocephalas churches) vs. the EP, Jerusalem, and Alexandria.

That would have a devastating effect on the North American Orthodox diaspora.


8 posted on 09/10/2018 9:01:59 PM PDT by lightman (Obama's legacy in 13 letters: BLM, ISIS, & ANTIFA. New axis of evil.)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

And I thought the RCC is in a bigtime mess.


9 posted on 09/11/2018 4:26:28 AM PDT by Biggirl ("One Lord, one faith, one baptism" - Ephesians 4:5)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege; lightman; NRx

“Patriarch Filaret” is no Patriarch at all, no Bishop, and no Orthodox Christian. He is an excommunicated schismatic!!!!

http://orthochristian.com/112773.html

Poroshenko is the head of an obama coup-installed government, and has no right to make Church policy anyway—as a layman!!!!

The “conflict between Ukraine and Russia for centuries” was the project of the long-vanished Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth—Roman Catholic to the core!!!!

The bogus “Patriarch” and bogus “President” are going to create a lot of trouble in the Orthodox Church, that will last of a very long time. Lord have mercy!!!!


10 posted on 09/11/2018 7:23:53 AM PDT by Honorary Serb (Kosovo is Serbia! Free Srpska! Abolish ICTY!)
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To: Honorary Serb

Again. More Kremlin talking points. Zero spiritual insight. And zero accountability for Moscow Patriarchate’s mistakes.


11 posted on 09/11/2018 8:20:37 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: null and void
Why did Constantinople get the works?

That's nobody's business but the Turks.
12 posted on 09/11/2018 12:15:29 PM PDT by Carpe Cerevisi
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To: Honorary Serb; CondoleezzaProtege; lightman

There is a lot of truth to that. Add to which this is much more about the centuries old tension between Constantinople and Moscow over who is the top dog. Bart has been showing papal pretensions for quite some time, which when considered in the context of his radical ecumenism, his general tolerance for things like homosexuality and abortion, and more recently his decision to permit already ordained priests to remarry contrary to the ancient canons of the church makes him a natural ally of the Roman Catholic Church and Pope Francis. The EP is also quite furious over Moscow and several other local churches refusing to play along with his robber council at Crete.

Bottom line- this has nothing to do with Moscow’s allegedly unsavory political ties. It has everything to do with ecclesial power politics... the EP trying to assert a universal jurisdiction that they don’t have under church canons and a good old fashioned dose of revenge.


13 posted on 09/11/2018 12:55:56 PM PDT by NRx (A man of integrity passes his father's civilization to his son, without selling it off to strangers.)
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To: NRx; lightman

This could affect me personally, since I would not be able to commune in my nearby Greek Orthodox parish (under the Ecumenical Patriarchate, whether they like it or not). I am a member of an OCA parish. If I change to Serbian Orthodox, that still won’t help!

Many Orthodox Christians in North America would be adversely affected. Lord have mercy!!


14 posted on 09/11/2018 1:53:27 PM PDT by Honorary Serb (Kosovo is Serbia! Free Srpska! Abolish ICTY!)
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To: NRx

I seem to have the same attitude you do.


15 posted on 09/11/2018 3:03:32 PM PDT by Mount Athos (A Giant luxury mega-mansion for Gore, a Government Green EcoShack made of poo for you)
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To: Honorary Serb

The optimist in me keeps hoping that the so called Assembly of Bishops will all get together and politely but firmly tell the mother churches that all cash remittances from North America will stop until they grow up and start acting like Christian adults. The realist however, notes that more than half of all the Orthodox in the US are Greeks, with Russians and other Slavs making up maybe half the remainder. So I’m not holding my breath.


16 posted on 09/11/2018 3:48:48 PM PDT by NRx (A man of integrity passes his father's civilization to his son, without selling it off to strangers.)
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