Metropolitan Hilarion: Blitzkrieg of Patriarch Bartholomew flops
Patriarch Bartholomew in Ukraine hoped for a blitzkrieg, but his blitzkrieg flopped – this is already obvious, says Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev).
None of the Local Orthodox Church supported the actions of the Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew to create a new church structure in Ukraine, said Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, on the program “Church and Peace” It is reported by pravoslavie.ru.
“First of all, he hoped that as soon as he announced the ‘autocephaly of the Ukrainian church’, the bishops from the canonical Church would rush there and form the hardcore of the new ‘church structure’ created with the stroke of his pen – yet this did not occur.
Secondly, Patriarch Bartholomew had hopes that his lawless incursion into the canonical boundaries of the Russian Orthodox Church would be recognized by other Local Churches. However, this does not happen: not a single Local Church supported the actions of Patriarch Bartholomew and a number of Local Churches openly criticized his actions. So this plan also failed,” the DECR head stressed.
According to the hierarch, Patriarch Bartholomew and the Patriarchate of Constantinople “for many years, maybe for decades, will get bogged down in the situation they’ve created for themselves and for all of world Orthodoxy. They committed what is not recognized by the Local Orthodox Churches. There will be a certain structure recognized only by Phanar, while the other Local Orthodox Churches will continue to recognize only the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, headed by Metropolitan Onufriy, which is actually canonical.”
As the UOJ reported, earlier the head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, called upon the Ukrainian authorities to change their attitude to believers of the canonical Church after the elections and not force them into the OCU. He expressed the hope that the Ukrainian government will respect human rights, and believers of all religious denominations will have the right to go to the temples they choose.
