Expert: Head of Phanar Archdiocese builds “papal” Church for himself
Political strategist Andrei Zolotarev is sure that the American see is used by Elpidophoros as a career ladder leading to the throne of Constantinople.
Andrei Zolotarev, Ukrainian political expert, chairman of the "Third Sector" center, believes that Elpidophoros (Lambriniadis), head of the Phanariote Archdiocese in the United States, is creating a "papal" model of the Orthodox Church for himself. Zolotarev wrote about this on his FB page.
In his opinion, Elpidophoros “was remembered being supine before Patriarch Bartholomew back in 2014”, when “in response to the position of the Synod of the ROC that the ROC understands the primacy of honor of the Patriarch of Constantinople as the first one mentioned in the diptychs among equals (without papal powers)” said that "the primacy of the archbishop of Constantinople has nothing to do with diptychs."
“If we talk about the source of primacy, then such a source is the very personality of the Archbishop of Constantinople, who as the Bishop is the first ‘among equals’, but as the Archbishop of Constantinople and, accordingly, the Ecumenical Patriarch is the first without equals (primus sine paribus),” Elpidophoros wrote then.
Zolotarev notes that over the past 100 years, Phanar has been developing the doctrine of primacy "actually cloning the Vatican model, in which the head of the church, i.e. the pope, is considered the representative of God on Earth."
Based on this construct, the expert says, Elpidophoros actively assisted Bartholomew in the project of granting autocephaly to the OCU, for which he received his prestigious see of the chief archbishop and representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the United States.
Zolotarev is sure that this see is used by Elpidophoros as a “career ladder leading to the throne of Constantinople. True though, this is done on the heads of his Orthodox colleagues and, possibly, on the head of Patriarch Bartholomew himself."
At the same time, Andrei Zolotarev emphasizes that “the idea of papacy is so strong for the archbishop that he also keeps in focus other directions for creating his majesty,” among which is “the struggle with the Cypriot and Greek Churches for the right to represent Greek Orthodoxy in the world” ...
At the same time, "the flexibility of principles, free handling of the canons of Orthodoxy and a keen interest in gaining power make Elpidophoros an ideal candidate for the US Democratic Party, which traditionally selects its agents of influence in foreign jurisdictions precisely according to such criteria."
Zolotarev recalled that Archbishop Elpidophoros was invited to the BLM march to New York by Brooklyn Mayor Eric Leroy Adams and State Senator Andrew Gunardes: "Both of them, by coincidence, represent the main beneficiary of the protests – the US Democratic Party."
In addition, Phanar’s social doctrine "For the Life of the World" is written by Elpidophoros "also coincides by chance with the main points of the election program of the Democratic Party candidate Joseph Biden: the protection of migrants, tolerance to deviations, the replacement of Christian values with a free interpretation of human rights, etc."
Recalling Elpidophoros' congratulations to Muslims on Ramadan, Zolotarev writes that the head of the Archdiocese in the United States "is not going to limit his political activism within the framework of Orthodoxy and, moreover, canons."
“This is, in fact, a declaration about the start of his brisk political activity in the country which is far from being Orthodox and which stands at the threshold of presidential elections, thus, on the side of one of the two largest political parties in the United States,” the expert wrote.
In his opinion, “it was the papal ambitions, rather than independence of the OCU, as it was touted to naive patriots in 2018-2019 by Petro Poroshenko, that gave impetus to the rapprochement between Phanar and Bankova. The contradictions were revealed much later, when it turned out that Phanar actually created an exarchate in Ukraine, without any signs of autocephaly.
Zolotarev notes that in his recent interview, Elpidophoros once again reiterated that “no patriarchy has been discussed and is not being discussed now,” since, according to him, “Kievan Rus is Kiev, and today this is Ukraine – a jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Therefore, Kyiv is a metropolis!"
“All this suggests that the thoughts of the Phanar hierarch are occupied exclusively with one thing – collection / takeover at the cost of other church jurisdictions. It doesn't matter how and from whom they will be taken away. Nor does it matter where the patriarchy itself will be located,” the expert writes.
In his opinion, "it is difficult to say who actually – Patriarch Bartholomew, presidential candidate Joseph Biden, or Turkish President Erdogan – directs the actions of the American Archbishop."
“Although, in fact, a much more important question is who Archbishop Elpidophoros serves in the spiritual sense, if he is deliberately aggravating the schism in World Orthodoxy, persistently building a papacy scenario for himself, and willing to subjugate as many church jurisdictions as possible,” summed up Andrei Zolotarev.
Earlier, the UOJ wrote that Archbishop Elpidophoros said that as the head of the Archdiocese of America, he works with all governments regardless of their party affiliation.
