Berlin hierarch comments on Phanar document published by UOJ-USA

Metropolitan Mark of Berlin and Germany. Photo: UOJ in Germany collage

Metropolitan Mark of Berlin and Germany, a hierarch of the ROCOR, has commented on the internal report of the Patriarchate of Constantinople on the 2018 "Unification Council," released by the UOJ-USA. The full text of the statement was exclusively published, with the Metropolitan's blessing, by UOJ in Germany.

According to the publication, the report for Patriarch Bartholomew was written by the current Metropolitan Gregorios of Ankara, who in 2018 was a deacon in the Phanar delegation in Kyiv. The document describes negotiations with the Ukrainian leadership and pressure from state structures on church representatives. The publication has recorded no official reaction from the Patriarchate of Constantinople to the release.

Metropolitan Mark calls this information extremely alarming "if it corresponds to reality." According to him, the Phanar's internal document confirms rumors that had long circulated in church circles. For the first time, it shows the full scale of the interference in another's canonical territory and the creation of a schismatic structure opposed to the canonical UOC.

The Metropolitan recalled that Petro Poroshenko appealed to Patriarch Bartholomew with a request to create an autocephalous church loyal to the authorities. "Church law and the canonical system did not interest him in the slightest," the hierarch stressed. The Tomos (the Letter of autocephaly) was issued not to the UOC headed by Metropolitan Onuphry, but to the union of the "Kyiv Patriarchate" and the UAOC, and without consultation with the other Local Churches.

Metropolitan Mark separately drew attention to the role of the Ukrainian state and its security structures in legitimizing the "unrepentant schismatics." In his assessment, the document reveals the "blindness of the leadership of the Ecumenical Patriarchate," which believes it can rely on "eternal privileges." The hierarch also pointed out that the patriarch's status as "guarantor of the statute" deprives the new structure of the promised independence.

Phanar representatives, including the Patriarch, should be "deeply ashamed" for allowing the political forces of the West to draw them into actions contrary to conscience, church law and common sense, Metropolitan Mark believes. He sees the cause in political ambitions and a "thirst for privileges." According to him, the OCU lacks active believers and has almost no monasticism, but it does have groups of forceful pressure that help seize other people's church property. The Metropolitan called the OCU a purely political construct and expressed hope that Patriarch Bartholomew, who knows this, will nevertheless reconsider his position.

As UOJ reported, Metropolitan Mark of Berlin also stated that the decision to create the OCU under pressure is invalid.

Read also