Russian Church recalls stance of new Serbian Patriarch on Ukrainian issue
The Deputy Head of the MP DECR said that the Primate of the Serbian Church had previously expressed support for the UOC and declared his rejection of the schism.
Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, Deputy Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, in his comments to RIA Novosti on the election of a new Primate of the Serbian Orthodox Church, noted that Patriarch Porfirije had supported the faithful of the canonical UOC in previous years and declared his rejection of the schism.
He said that the prudence and spiritual experience of the newly elected Primate provided him with the votes of the Serbian episcopate and also noted the consistency of the entire Serbian Church on the Ukrainian issue.
“We are acting out of the conviction of maintaining the continuity of the course of the Serbian Orthodox Church in everything that concerns loyalty to the patristic understanding of the unity of the Church,” said the Deputy Head of the MP DECR. Metropolitan Porfirije is the defender of the canonical church system. In previous years, he has been known to support our Orthodox believers in Ukraine and reject the split."
As the UOJ reported, on February 18, 2021, the enthronement of Patriarch Porfirije took place in Belgrade.
