Patriarch of Antioch: Phanar’s actions in Ukraine harms Orthodoxy
His Beatitude Patriarch John X of Antioch and All the East believes that political factors, to a great extent, lie behind the church schism in Ukraine.
Orthodox unity, in Pat. John’s view, is a red line that cannot be crossed. Speaking with “RT”, His Beatitude spoke of the harm that has been done to Orthodoxy in the Ukrainian crisis: “Regarding the situation with the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, I can express my regret inasmuch as these actions have caused damage to the Orthodox Church. We had hoped that all these steps would not have been so fast, that the majority of the opinions of the other Churches would have been taken into account and that an agreement would have been reached through consultation.”
“We do not say that this schism is a political one, but it seems there are clearly other factors here—political and others, that lie behind this problem,” the Patriarch added.
As the UOJ reported, earlier Patriarch Irinej of Serbia stated that the Serbian Orthodox Church does not recognize as canonical the newly created church structure in Ukraine and prays for the canonical unity of Orthodoxy and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
