ROC rep: Pat Bartholomew promised not to interfere in Ukraine and deceived
Met Hilarion said the Phanar head, in the presence of the delegations of the Local Churches, declared that Metropolitan Onuphry was the canonical primate in Ukraine.
On January 26, 2021, the chairman of the ROC DECR, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk, in an exclusive interview with the Greek edition “Romfea”, said that shortly before the Council of Crete held in 2016, Patriarch Bartholomew promised not to interfere in the religious situation in Ukraine but did not keep his promise.
According to Metropolitan Hilarion, “in 2016 at the Synaxis of the Primates in Chambesy, Patriarch Bartholomew publicly, in front of all delegations of the Local Churches, said: “We recognize Metropolitan Onuphry and greet him as the only canonical hierarch of our Orthodox Church in Ukraine, together with holy bishops under him’".
Metropolitan Hilarion especially emphasized that “Patriarch Bartholomew also promised not to interfere in church affairs in Ukraine either before or after the Council. We believed these words. We thought: since the Ecumenical Patriarch says so, let us really, as he promises us, hold a Council, and after that, we will continue to discuss the topic of autocephaly. We shouldn’t have trusted him, he deceived us. That was our big mistake,” resumed Metropolitan Hilarion.
Earlier, the UOJ wrote that the head of the DECR MP said that the schism in Orthodoxy was inspired by the US authorities.
