Metropolitan Isaiah of Tamassos: There can be no return of the decisions of Phanar on the OCU

Metropolitan Isaiah of Tamassos of the Cypriot Orthodox Church said that the decision of the Patriarchate of Constantinople to recognize the OCU cannot be revised, the Orthodoxia News Agency reports.

Metropolitan Isaiah put forward his candidacy for the post of Primate of the Cypriot Church and during a meeting with voters said that the Patriarchate of Constantinople “is important for us not only because it serves as the Mother See of Orthodoxy, but also because it keeps in its depths the unquenchable flame of the Greek Byzantine history, tradition and theology.

He further noted that the Church needs to be modernized, and clarified his position on Ukrainian autocephaly. “The complicated Ukrainian issue with the war is now over, and there can be no recourse (return) from the decisions of the ecumenical throne. Regardless of the elections in Cyprus,” said Metropolitan Isaiah.

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that Metropolitan Isaiah, together with another two bishops of the Church of Cyprus, opposed the recognition of the OCU and signed a joint statement, whereby “the Ukrainian issue has an adverse impact on the unity of the Church” and that “granting the Tomos of autocephaly to the Church Ukraine had to comply with the canons and traditions of the Church, and the ecclesiastical order is the only one to solve the problem that has arisen and to prevent the risk of a split.”