Pat. John X: Creation of OCU is a threat to the unity of the Orthodox world

His Beatitude Patriarch John X of Antioch

His Beatitude Patriarch John X of Antioch urged Pat. Bartholomew to stop the process of granting autocephaly until a pan-Orthodox solution could be found to the Ukrainian crisis, reports Patriarchia.ru.

Responding to Patriarch Bartholomew’s request to recognize the OCU, Patriarch John X of Antioch wrote: “We want to see the unity of the Orthodox world strengthened and consolidated. From your letter, it seems that you have decided to continue the process of granting autocephaly… Therefore, we call upon you to not make any decisions not supported by the consensus of the autocephalous Orthodox Churches. It is unreasonable to stop a schism at the price of the unity of the Orthodox world.” 

The Primate of the Antioch Orthodox Church expressed confidence that “the most useful thing for peace in the Church, its unity, and for the common Orthodox witness in our world today is to stop and postpone this process until the Ukrainian problem is studied and a pan-Orthodox solution is found.”

“Therefore, we entreat Your All-Holiness to call your brother primates of the Orthodox Churches to study these issues, to protect our Church from danger, which leads to peace and harmony neither in Ukraine nor in the Orthodox world,” Pat. John writes.

“Our love for our Orthodox Church and Your beloved Holiness prompts us to write these words with the hope of seeing the Orthodox world united, especially in your wonderful era, bearing witness to the Truth of our Lord Jesus, incarnated for the sake of the salvation of the world,” His Beatitude Pat. John emphasized.

As the UOJ reported, the Belarusian Church they said they were not going to contact the newly-formed OCU; the Bishops' Councils of the Serbian and Polish Orthodox Churches did not recognize the legalization of the schism in Ukraine by the Constantinople Patriarchate, and the Primate of the ROCOR also condemned the Phanar’s act against the Orthodox Ukrainians. According to him, the activities of Constantinople in Ukraine will "only worsen the discord among believers".

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