Phanar head: ROC’s break of communion with us is inexplicable

Patriarch Bartholomew. Photo: greek.vema.com.au

The head of the Constantinople Church, Patriarch Bartholomew, believes that the break of Eucharistic communion between the Phanar and the Russian Orthodox Church is inexplicable, reports fosfanariou.gr.

On September 1, 2023, in a word on the occasion of the arrival of Epiphanius Dumenko at the Phanar, Patriarch Bartholomew spoke of his efforts "to strengthen the unity and cooperation of the Orthodox Autocephalous Churches," the result of which was the convening of the Council of Crete in 2016.

He noted that the war between Russia and Ukraine "affects the relationships between the respective sister Orthodox Churches".

Patriarch Bartholomew accused the ROC of creating a "new ecclesiology" and stated that the discontinuation of Eucharistic communion with the Phanar at the initiative of the Russian Orthodox Church is "unacceptable and inexplicable."

"We cannot allow the Eucharist to become a tool of pressure on one another and to compel other Churches to conform to the new ecclesiology," Patriarch Bartholomew said.

As earlier reported, according to Patriarch Bartholomew, 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers have died in the Russia-Ukraine war.

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