DECR MP: Russian Church cannot deny Turkish Orthodox its pastoral care

Metropolitan Hilarion, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church. Photo: ria.ru

The head of the DECR of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk, said that the Russian Orthodox Church cannot refuse to provide spiritual guidance to Orthodox believers in Turkey, RIA Novosti reports.

Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, said that the ROC "could not refuse the clergy (of the Patriarchate of Alexandria – Ed.), who had realized the erroneous position of their patriarch, to accept them into the bosom of our Church."

“In the same way, we cannot deny the Orthodox believers of Turkey (the canonical territory of the Patriarchate of Constantinople – Ed.) pastoral care in the conditions when the Patriarch of Constantinople took the side of the schism,” Metropolitan Hilarion said.

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that the ROC had formed the Patriarchal Exarchate of Africa.

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