Seven monks leave Vatopedi after the visit of OCU delegation
Vatopedi Monastery of Athos
Thus, seven monks of Vatopedi protested against contacts with the new church structure, Interfax reports.
According to the source in the Moscow Patriarchate, this is about monastics from Ukraine, Russia and Moldova. According to journalists, among the ethnic Greeks inhabiting Vatopedi, there are quite a lot of those who frown at the position of the leadership of the monastery and consider the OCU representatives as schismatics.
“In total, today four Athos monasteries — Xenophontos, Pantokrator, New Esphigmenou and Vatopedi — have entered into communion with Ukrainian pseudo-church,” the source concluded.
“In our eyes, one by one, the Athos monasteries get into communion with dissenters and commit the unthinkable betrayal of Orthodox people in Ukraine who are being persecuted, blackmailed, beaten, driven out of their own temples <...> How sophisticated the enemy of the human race is mocking people!”
As reported by the UOJ, the OCU delegation was not allowed to the Holy Panteleimon Monastety on Athos. The abbot of the monastery, Archimandrite Eulogy, did not let the representatives of the new Ukrainian Church into the monastery, turned them straight from the monastery gates with the words that they are not recognized there.
Earlier 5 out of 20 monasteries backed the initiative of Constaninople Patriarch Bartholomew to send a delegation to the enthronement of OCU head Epiphany Dumenko. Representatives of the majority of Athos monasteries (15) spoke out against it. Many Athonite hermits claim to stop the commemoration of Patriarch Bartholomew. Other monasteries, including Philotheou and Karakallou, have said they would close their gates if Epiphany Dumenko, the head of the OCU, came the Holy Mount.
Read also
In Podgorica, multi-thousand procession held on city's patron saint day
Thousands of believers walked in a procession through the capital of Montenegro, honoring the memory of Saint Simeon the Myrrh-Streaming.
Persecuted UOC parish in Zeleniv reads Great Canon
A Bukovynian Orthodox community, deprived of its church in 2024, conducts Great Lent services in an adapted facility.
Patriarch Bartholomew warns against unacceptable peace for Ukraine
The head of the Constantinople Church stated that to achieve peace in Ukraine, the leaders of nations must take the "narrow path of justice."
MinCulture opens Lavra's Near Caves only for groups and by reservation
The Ministry of Culture's statement says that "the opening of the Near Caves for believers is not only a long-awaited and outstanding event in church life but also a sign of the indestructibility of our faith".
Metropolitan Onuphry reads Great Canon at Intercession Convent of Kyiv
The Primate of the UOC led the Great Compline with the reading of the second part of the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete at the capital's Intercesssion Convent.
OCU “hierarch” selling fake ID documents sent to pre-trial detention center
The Ivano-Frankivsk court has chosen a preventive measure for the OCU "bishop" suspected of issuing fictitious ordination certificates for the rank of deacon to evade mobilization.