Metropolitan of Chalcedon: Russian Church has become schismatic

Patriarch Kirill, Patriarch Bartholomew, and Metropolitan Emmanuel. Photo: A. Volkov

In an interview with the French outlet Le Point, Metropolitan Emmanuel called the Russian Church schismatic.

Responding to the question of whether granting "autocephaly" to Ukraine was the source of the current division in the Orthodox Church, Emmanuel replied in the negative, emphasizing that “it was precisely Constantinople, having faced pressure from the tsarist government in the 18th century and then from the Soviet regime in the 20th, that defended the desire for independence among Orthodox peoples – Slavic, Baltic, and Scandinavian – and provided canonical grounds for this independence after 1991.”

“The decision of His All-Holiness regarding Ukraine was not only prophetic but fully in line with the rights and responsibilities of the primacy of service vested in the Ecumenical Throne as the Mother Church,” the hierarch stated. “Today, only the Moscow Patriarchate insists on the schism – and it alone is schismatic, as it has once again, this time voluntarily, fallen under the influence of the Kremlin.”

According to him, “the break did not occur at our initiative; we do not equate this deviation with the rich contribution of the Russian Orthodox tradition to global culture, and we are working toward restoring unity with the Russian Church once it regains true freedom.”

He also mentioned that “the symbol of the Roman and later Byzantine Empires – as well as of many who claimed their legacy – was the double-headed eagle, symbolizing harmony between spiritual and secular authority.”

“In modern Russia, this eagle has turned into a single-headed one – a complete merger of powers has occurred,” said Emmanuel, recalling that the Council of Eastern Patriarchs held in Constantinople in 1872 “condemned as ‘ethnophyletism’ the mixing of religion and politics, nation and denomination, Church and state, defining it as ‘the most dangerous modern heresy.’”

“This condemnation fully applies to the ideology of the ‘Russian World,’ shared by Patriarch Kirill and President Putin, who are building their Manichaean crusade of ‘Good versus Evil’ on its basis. True Orthodoxy, as a living faith rather than an ideological construct, always follows Christ’s command to separate what is God’s from what is Caesar’s,” the hierarch concluded.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that Metropolitan Emmanuel stated: “We must support Zelensky.”

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