Cypriot hierarch: Phanar's claims to primacy in Church are anti-canonical

Metropolitan Nikiforos. Photo: zen.yandex.ru

On September 16, 2021, at the conference "World Orthodoxy: Primacy and Conciliarity in the Light of the Orthodox Doctrine", held online, Metropolitan Nikiforos of Kykkos and Tillyria of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus reiterated that Orthodoxy recognizes only one Head of the Church – Jesus Christ, Patriarchia.ru reports.

Metropolitan Nikiforos of Kykkos and Tillyria, whose report was read by video link by Archimandrite Seraphim (Gavrikov), noted that the ambitions of the Ecumenical Patriarch now affect the entire Church.

“In fact, he puts forward claims for the right to interfere in the internal life of all Local Orthodox Patriarchates and autocephalous Churches,” the hierarch of the Cypriot Church emphasized.

At the same time, Metropolitan Nikiforos states that from the point of view of history and sacred canons, there can be only one unquestionable answer to the issue of leadership in the Catholic Church: “For two millennia of its history, the Orthodox Church has not endowed any of its bishops with the title and competences of the Head of the Church.”

“Consequently, it doesn’t get any more straightforward that that – moreover, this can be justified historically, canonically, dogmatically, proceeding from the iconographic tradition and the writings of the fathers – that none of the Primates, Patriarchs or heads of the Autocephalous Churches can replace the only unchanging Head of the Church, our Lord Jesus Christ. The Church in its conciliarity and catholicity has no other Head than our Lord Jesus Christ,” Metropolitan Nikiforos said.

He recalled that in Orthodoxy, the highest canonical authority in the Church is the Ecumenical Councils, rather than whoever of the Primates of the Local Orthodox Churches.

“Since ancient times, the Church has believed in the Ecumenical Council as the infallible and supreme institution of the Church and ecclesiologically interpreted it in this way,” summed up the bishop of the Church of Cyprus.

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that, according to Archbishop Theodosios of Sebastia, only the UOC is recognized in the Holy Land.

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