ROC recalls that Phanar supported Renovationist split in the 20th century
Constantinople, which deliberately violated church canons and supported the schism, did a similar thing in the past, said Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev).
The Head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, recalled that Phanar, which has supported the schism within the Ukrainian Church, previously approved the Renovationist schism within the Russian Church.
“Those who are now telling us that the Patriarch of Constantinople, you see, had the right to grant autocephaly to Ukraine, are wrong,” the hierarch said in an interview with a Greek publication, the text of which was published on the website of the MP DECR. He had no right. This cannot be done without the consent of the Ukrainian church people and the Ukrainian episcopate, without the consent of the Russian Church. He deliberately violated church canons in order to harm the Russian Orthodox Church, which, unfortunately, was also the case in the past."
When the Renovationist split arose in Russia after the Bolshevik revolution, Metropolitan Hilarion explained, the then Patriarch of Constantinople Miletius (Metaxakis) did not support it, but his successor, Patriarch Gregory VII, "actually supported the Renovationists through his representative in Moscow."
“There is documentary evidence of this. For example, a letter was sent to our Patriarch-Confessor Saint Tikhon, which said: we propose that you immediately renounce the Patriarchal Throne and we generally believe that the Patriarchate in Russia should be abolished. These actions were taken by Constantinople at a time when the Russian Church was being persecuted, and the whole world knew about it. Our priests were shot, churches were blown up, monasteries were destroyed, but the Patriarchate of Constantinople nevertheless supported that schism within the Russian Church. Now the Patriarchate of Constantinople has supported the schism within the Ukrainian Church,” summed up the head of the MP DECR.
Let us remind you that earlier Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) said that Phanar reshapes the ecclesiology of the Church according to the papist model.
