GOC bishop: Patriarch Bartholomew caused unprecedented turmoil in Orthodoxy
Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus believes that it was precisely the position of Patriarch Bartholomew on the “Ukrainian issue” that provoked a crisis in Universal Orthodoxy, reports agapotonxristo.blogspot.com.
According to the hierarch, it was "the Ukrainian issue that has become a big problem for World Orthodoxy."
He is sure that “autocephaly to an insignificant minority of unrepentant, unordained schismatics of Kiev”, granted by Patriarch Bartholomew, not only contradicts the holy canons, laws of psychology and logic, but also “caused an unprecedented ecclesiastical turmoil in Universal Orthodoxy.”
Metropolitan Seraphim calls Phanar's position "an unreasonable fidelity to this new, dangerous church formation (OCU – Ed.), which he created in Ukraine."
This "unreasonable fidelity" (or obstinacy – Ed.), as well as his refusal to convene a Pan-Orthodox Synod, according to the hierarch, "led to the exacerbation of the existing schism between the ten Local Churches (out of 200,000,000 believers)."
In addition, the Metropolitan of Piraeus’s statement says that “the other four Churches (the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Churches of Alexandria, Cyprus and Greece), which recognized autocephaly, acted anti-canonically.”
Earlier, the UOJ wrote that the Metropolitan of Piraeus called on the Church of Greece to condemn the Tomos for the OCU.
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