Pat. Kirill urges believers not to visit Greek dioceses that recognized OCU

Patriarch Kirill at a meeting of the clergy of the city of Moscow. Photo: pravoslavie.ru

On December 20, 2019, at the annual Eparchial meeting of the clergy of the city of Moscow, held at the Christ the Savior Cathedral, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus urged the clergy and laity not to make pilgrimages to those dioceses of the Greek Church that recognized the OCU, reports Patriarchia.ru.

According to the Primate of the Russian Church, after the head of the Greek Church Archbishop Ieronymos recognized the OCU, “The Holy Synod of our Church on October 17 this year decided to cease the Eucharistic communion with those bishops of the Church of Greece who entered or will enter into communion with Ukrainian schismatics.”

He emphasized that "the Synod also did not bless pilgrimage trips to the dioceses governed by the designated bishops".

In this regard, Patriarch Kirill urged the audience to pay attention to the decisions taken. According to him, “from now on, the archpastors, clergy and laity of our Church can make a pilgrimage not to every diocese, not to every city and not to every monastery on the territory of Greece. Not every bishop and clergyman of the Church of Greece can now be concelebrated with.”

The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church asked the believers “when planning a pilgrimage, to apply for relevant information to the Department for External Church Relations or to the Pilgrimage Centre of the Russian Orthodox Church, which also publish information on this issue on their websites”.

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that the Russian Orthodox Church called the dioceses of the Church of Greece undesirable for pilgrimage.

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