Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev): Autocephaly is a political project

Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev)

Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk (Alfeyev) said on the air of the program ”Church and World” that the schism in Ukraine was initially conceived as a political project.

"Autocephaly is also a political project," said Vladyka Hilarion. “The canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, uniting millions of believers, the Church, which has more than 12,000 parishes and more than 200 monasteries, did not ask for autocephaly."

The Metropolitan said that this idea, born in the minds of politicians, does not find any support in the Orthodox world.

"In recent weeks, I have had a lot of talks with the heads and representatives of the Local Orthodox Churches. I have not heard from any of them any support for the idea of autocephaly in Ukraine," said Vladyka.

The DECR head believes that everyone is interested in creating an autocephalous church, except for the Orthodox believers themselves.

"The authorities of Ukraine are interested in it, the schismatics are interested in it and the Uniates are interested in it, but each side is interested for its own reasons. Is it possible to build a solid house on such a crooked base?" noted the metropolitan adding that "the unity of the Church is not a phantom, but a reality, the preservation of which is in our human hands."

The heads of the Local Orthodox Churches, including those that belong to the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, have repeatedly backlashed a schismatic idea of establishing the SLC. Nevertheless, spokesman of the “Kyiv Patriarchate” Evstartiy Zoria accused Orthodox hierarchs of corruption.

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