Met. Hilarion: Local Churches did not back Phanar’s unilateral actions

Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk

Local Churches did not back unilateral actions of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in Ukraine. This was announced on October 10 by the head of the DECR of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk, reports TASS.

“Different responses are coming in: some Churches have publicly spoken out in favor of convening such a pan-Orthodox conference, while others have taken a pause,” said the hierarch when asked about the response of the Universal Orthodoxy to the situation in Ukraine. “But I have not yet seen a single statement from the Local Churches in support of unilateral actions of Constantinople, announced and carried out by Constantinople without the consent of the Local Orthodox Churches.”

As the UOJ reported, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia sent letters to the heads of all Orthodox Churches with a proposal to initiate a general Orthodox discussion of the situation around the ecclesiastic life of Ukraine. Later, the Synod of the Church of Antioch called on the Patriarch of Constantinople to convene an extraordinary Assembly of Orthodox Churches to discuss the granting of autocephalous church status. The same appeal came to Patriarch Bartholomew from Metropolitan Sabbah of Warsaw and All Poland.

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