Exarch for Africa tells how Pat Theodore "explained" his recognition of OCU
The Primate of the Church of Alexandria did not consider it necessary to answer the questions and quell perplexities of his clerics.
In an interview with the Russian School of Experts, the Patriarchal Exarch for Africa of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Leonid of Klin, spoke about how the meeting of Patriarch Theodore of Alexandria with the clergy took place on the issue of recognition of the OCU.
He noted that both among the priesthood and among the episcopate of the Church of Alexandria, there are still many who disagree with the sole decision of the patriarch to recognize the Ukrainian schismatics. According to the metropolitan, many of them are dependent people, and therefore do not openly express their dissatisfaction.
Over the past two years, the African clergy have written a lot of letters to local bishops and Patriarch Theodore asking them to describe what is really happening and why such a decision was made. Discontent grew, as the answers of the bishops boiled down to the words: "It's none of your business, stay out of this."
Metropolitan Leonid also said that quite recently the Primate of the Church of Alexandria came to one of the African countries to "put out a fire that had flared up." When he was asked at an open meeting the same questions as in the letters, the answer was: “It's none of your business. This is between me and Patriarch Kirill.”
With such an attitude, any connoisseur of canons and dogma would be lost, the Exarch for Africa concluded.
As the UOJ reported earlier, the heads of the countries of the African continent are positively disposed towards the ROC.
