Pat. Bartholomew personally requests every Local Church to recognize OCU
Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople
The head of the Constantinople Church, Patriarch Bartholomew, appealed to the hierarchs of other Local Orthodox Churches with a request to recognize the newly established OCU, reports the “Orthodoxia Info” website.
Patriarch Bartholomew sent a letter to the primates of the Local Churches that he intends to grant the Tomos to Ukraine on January 6 and wants to add the name of the new “Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine” to the Diptych following the name of the Primate of the Czech Church.
The Phanar’s hierarch stated in his message that he made a decision on this issue “knowing perfectly well the will and expressed desire of Ukraine”.
“You will agree with these efforts <...> and will recognize the Ukrainian church as an autocephalous church,” wrote Pat. Bartholomew. In his opinion, only such a decision of the Primates of the Local Churches will be fair.
Patriarch Bartholomew calls upon the primates to proceed with recognition, stressing that “Should we choose to ignore our brethren who are experiencing moments of agony in Ukraine, we will not have any justification [to give] on the Day of Judgment before the fearsome, single, and just throne of the Judge of the souls and hearts of all people, our just Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
The Polish Orthodox Church refused the request of the Patriarch Bartholomew for recognition of the OCU.
The bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church also noted that noted that “angry chauvinists, the Russophobes, led by corrupted politicians, and with the assistance of Uniates, and unfortunately with the noncanonical participation of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, have deepened and spread the existing schisms and have seriously endangered the unity of Orthodoxy in its entirety”.
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