Media: Local Churches are not obliged to take Phanar’s decisions as binding

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

In the Orthodox crisis, Western experts highlight the topic of equating the status of the Ecumenical Patriarch, “the first among equals” among other Orthodox Patriarchs, with the status of the Pope in the Catholic Church, who has the ability to say a “final word” on any issue, reports “Strana.ua".

The American edition “The National Interest” note that the Patriarch of Constantinople exercises direct authority over only a small percentage of the world’s Orthodox (several thousand inside Turkey plus elements of the Greek Orthodox diaspora, notably in the United States) and has no spiritual power to compel any Ukrainian Orthodox currently under the Moscow Patriarchate to leave its jurisdiction.

The publication says: “… the confusion here is assuming that the Ecumenical Patriarch enjoys a status in the Orthodox world akin to that of the Pope of Rome for the Catholic Church; that he has the ability to deliver a “final word” on any issue. The bottom line is that Orthodox Ukrainians will continue to determine what sort of Church administration they want.”

The edition stresses that “other Orthodox Churches, not just Moscow, are under no obligation to recognize these decisions as valid or binding on the entire Orthodox world”.

"The Washington Post" points out “the decentralized structure of the Orthodox Church, which lacks an all-powerful central authority figure like the pope”.

“Instead, the Patriarch of Constantinople is considered a “first among equals” among the other Orthodox patriarchs,” says the authoritative American edition. “Still, many decisions are reached among Orthodoxy’s 14 constituent churches, which largely conform to national borders, like Bulgaria, Romania and Russia, and also include the ancient regional churches that were part of the Byzantine Empire, like the one based in Alexandria, Egypt. Should the Ukrainian church become the 15th church, fresh battles over parishes and church property are likely to erupt.”

As the UOJ reported, Chancellor of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Metropolitan Anthony of Borispol and Brovary expressed his conviction that the Local Orthodox Churches would give a correct assessment of the actions of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, who assumed “the sole responsibility of being an arbitrator”.

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