Inside from MP Tymchuk: Patriarch Kirill is not flying to Phanar

Visit of Patriarch Kirill to Istanbul is scheduled for August 31

The leader of the Russian Orthodox Church simply does not understand what one can talk about with Patriarch Bartholomew, parliamentarian and coordinator of the group Dmitry Tymchuk wrote on his Facebook page.

"The FSB of the Russian Federation and Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service have got finally disappointed in the prospect that the process of granting Tomos on autocephaly to the Ukrainian Local Orthodox Church could be thwarted by the so-called special methods (bribery, blackmail, backstage arrangements). Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Kirill (Gundiaev) is perfectly aware of this fact," explained the MP.

Therefore, says Tymchuk, Patriarch Kirill "expresses his categorical unwillingness to fly to the Phanar because, as he said, he simply does not understand what he can talk about with Bartholomew."

"In addition, the meeting in this format and under the current circumstances is considered by Kirill humiliating for himself. In this regard, Gundiaev plans to send in his place Metropolitan Hilarion, head of the Department for External Church Relations, to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. At the same time, Hilarion tries to convince Kirill that it is the Patriarch that needs to fly to the Phanar, since the meeting was announced and its cancellation will only affect the image of the ROC being already vague now," the Ukrainian parliamentarian writes.

As reported by the UOJ, on August 31 Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus Kirill is to meet with Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. In the office of the Secretary General of the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the meeting was reported to be held at the request of the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church. During the visit, Patriarch Kirill will discuss bilateral issues of mutual interest with the Patriarch of Constantinople and ‘competent bodies of the Mother Church’."

MP and coordinator of the Information Resistance group Dmitry Tymchuk is known for his fake statements about the UOC. He accused Gorlovka eparchy of its collaboration with separatists and also spotted the "Russian world" in the lessons of Christian ethics. Tymchuk is one of the co-authors of the anti-church bill No. 4511 who openly acknowledged that the new law is directed solely against the UOC.

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