Phanar hierarch to Ukraine Ambassador to US: We support DOS and condemn ROC
Archbishop Elpidophoros and Oksana Markarova. Photo: Archbishop Elpidophoros of America facebook page
At a meeting with Oksana Markarova, Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States, Archbishop Elpidophoros (Lambriniadis), the head of the American Archdiocese of Phanar, spoke about his support for the position of the State Department, which accused Russia of instrumentalizing “Orthodox identity” for political purposes, the hierarch of the Patriarchate of Constantinople wrote on his Facebook page.
The Phanar hierarch stated that Ukrainians are “suffering from Russian imperialism,” and also accused the Russian Orthodox Church of “unfair treatment of the history and traditions of Orthodoxy” and “dividing Orthodoxy world over and scandalizing the People of God from Ukraine to Africa.”
“We welcome the US government's stance and the recent statement by a State Department spokesman condemning the Kremlin's 'malign efforts to instrumentalize Orthodox identity',” the Phanar hierarch wrote.
As reported by the UOJ, Patriarch Theodore complained about the ROC to the Abbot of the Sinai Monastery.
Read also
Penitential canon read at Zabolottia’s persecuted UOC parish
The Orthodox community of St. Elijah on Bukovyna, deprived of its church in May 2025, is serving the services of Great Lent in a renovated space adapted for prayer.
Prosecutor’s Office demands that UOC hand over to state Staryi Pochaiv church
The Ternopil regional prosecutor’s office is seeking, through the courts, to annul the registration of ownership rights to the 17th-century Holy Protection (Intercession) Church of the UOC in the village of Staryi Pochaiv.
Centuries-old crosses from Serbian graves hauled away as scrap in Croatia
Municipal services in the Croatian town of Vrbovsko removed Orthodox crosses from cemeteries under the pretext of “danger to visitors.”
Reserve replaces Lavra Caves’ saints’ nameplates with Ukrainian-language signs
Online, people have shown what new changes the National Reserve has introduced in the caves of the Kyiv-Pechersk Monastery.
First words and photos after Bishop Arseniy's release published online
The abbot of the Sviatohirsk Lavra, after a year and ten months of imprisonment, offered praise to the Most Holy Theotokos for his release.
In Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi, UOC hierarch reads Great Canon near seized church
Bishop Antony performed the Great Penitential Canon together with believers near a closed church in the Cherkasy Eparchy of the UOC.