Metropolitan of Piraeus: Head of Ukrainian Church – His Beatitude Onuphry

Metropolitan Seraphim (Mentzelopoulos) of Piraeus, a hierarch of the Greek Orthodox Church. Photo: apologet.spb.ru

A letter was published on the Net in which Metropolitan Seraphim (Mentzelopoulos) of Piraeus explained the reasons for his presence at the liturgy, during which the Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church, Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens and All Greece, commemorated the head of the OCU Epiphany Dumenko. In the communiqué published by the online edition Vima Orthodoxias, Bishop Seraphim acknowledges His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine the head of the Ukrainian Church.

"Mr Metropolitan of Piraeus recognizes the only canonical Metropolitan of Kyiv, His Beatitude Metropolitan of Kyiv Mr Onuphry and the Holy Synod under him, and considers acts of acceptance of the defectors, excommunicated and anathematized monk Filaret Denisenko and excommunicated priest Nikolai-Makariy Maletich, canonically invalid,” stresses the Greek hierarch.

He explained that he considered the Phanar’s actions in Ukraine non-canonical but the above acts are “not non-existent because the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate is certainly a trustee of Divine Grace, it has the canonical right granted by the Lord to ‘just decide’ with regard to the Holy Canons”.

According to Metropolitan Seraphim, any possible irregular decisions of the Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople “shall not be removed by the goodwill of any fortified and concerned believer but by the regular body in accordance with the Holy Canons, i.e. by the convened Pan-Orthodox (Ecumenical) Council”.

“And the unholy co-operatives with the Papists and Unites of the lay people of the new structure in Ukraine are …. actions that demonstrate the error of the Holy Synod in entrusting so many iniquitous, impure and foolish people with the great treasure of Autocephaly,” said the Greek bishop. 

On January 6, 2020, the hierarch of the Church of Greece explained his participation in the service, at which the head of the OCU was commemorated, by saying that “he had no power to impose on His Beatitude Archbishop of Athens, nor of course to interrupt his communion with Him”.

He also recalled that he had always defended the canons of the Holy Church: he had publicly criticized the Cretan Council, severely condemns the heresy of syncretic inter-Christian and inter-religious ecumenism, with many protests against the leaders of heresies; and since 2018 he “has demonstrated the true law-and-order dimension of the Ukrainian issue" and has “publicly stated that the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate violating the above Rules of the Fourth Ecumenical Council and failing to take into account the Canons of the Council of Carthage, has violated the principle of the identity of punishments, which is the unifying element of the Orthodox Autocephalous Churches."

Earlier, Metropolitan Seraphim and three other Greek hierarchs called on Patriarch Bartholomew to hold an All-Orthodox Council on the OCU.

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