Russian Church hopes Constantinople will move from monologue to dialogue

Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk. Photo: pravoslavie.ru

The Russian Orthodox Church hopes that Constantinople will move from a monologue to a dialogue – this is the only way to solve the "inter-Orthodox issues". Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, told reporters, according to RIA Novosti.

“I think that the solution to inter-Orthodox problems lies in the plane of dialogue ... We hope that sooner or later reason will prevail, that the Patriarchate of Constantinople will move from a monologue to a dialogue, and so it will be possible to discuss the problems that have arisen at the pan-Orthodox level. Maybe then some solution will be found by the conciliar mind, as has happened more than once in the history of the Church,” said the Metropolitan.

The hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church emphasized that the Primates of the Churches should meet and discuss problems together. The situation when “one decides everything for all” and says that he has some special privileges received from the apostles, Metropolitan Hilarion called “madness”.

“We are not going to act by this logic, we will continue our ministry, and if priests or laity from those Churches that associated themselves with schism appeal to us, we have no right to refuse them, this is our logic,” emphasized the metropolitan.

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that the ROC recognized the fact of division in Universal Orthodoxy.

Read also