Phanar hierarch to Patriarch: Churches ignore our meetings because of OCU

Archbishop Elpidophoros and Patriarch Bartholomew. Photo: Orthodox Observer

Archbishop Elpidophoros in his letter to Patriarch Bartholomew, leaked to the Union of Orthodox Journalists of America, addressed an acute problem facing the Patriarchate of Constantinople in the diaspora: a number of Local Churches are effectively boycotting local episcopal assemblies.

"The prolonged ecclesiastical situation in Ukraine complicates, beyond inter-church relations at a higher level, also the cooperation among Orthodox in the diaspora, especially in the local Episcopal Assemblies," wrote the archbishop.

According to him, in some countries Episcopal Assemblies cannot even be convened – hierarchs of individual autocephalous Churches have received direct instructions from their "Mother Churches" not to attend meetings that are chaired by hierarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarchate according to protocol. The reason is Constantinople's granting of autocephaly to the OCU, which these Churches consider "uncanonical and schismatic".

Similar pressure aimed at undermining the Episcopal Assembly is being exerted, according to Archbishop Elpidophoros' admission, in the USA itself.

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that Trump included a hierarch of Constantinople in the Commission on Religious Freedom.

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