Estonian Church convinced that 3/4 of Orthodox Ukrainians belong to the KP

Metropolitan Stephanos of Tallinn and All Estonia of the EAOC

One should be blind or indifferent not to acknowledge the violence and abuses suffered by Orthodox Christians in Ukraine. Metropolitan Stephanos (Charalambides) of Tallinn and All Estonia Stephen (Charalambides) shares his reflections on the situation in Ukraine with orthodoxie.com, published Jivko Panev, Senior Lecturer in Canon Law and History of Local Churches at the Saint Serge Institute of Orthodox Theology in Paris.

The bishop of the Patriarch of Constantinople believes that the Ecumenical Patriarch cannot stand aside in the situation that has developed in the Ukrainian Church and threatens with an endless crisis, putting the relationship among believers in jeopardy. At the same time, he refers to the words of Antoine Arjakovsky, in the recent past a professor at the Ukrainian Catholic University, the founder and long-term director of the Institute of Ecumenical Studies at UCU, who in 2017 declared that three-quarters of the 25 million Ukrainian Orthodox Christians are currently under the jurisdiction of the Kiev Patriarchate led by "Patriarch" Filaret.

“In addition, it is estimated that of the remaining about a quarter of those who remain faithful (of the Moscow Patriarchate headed by Metropolitan Onufry and the Church, which is called the Autocephalous, led by Metropolitan Makary), more than 75% of them will join this new church structure which will be called tomorrow 'Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church'“said the head of the Estonian Autonomous Church.

The hierarch believes that “Orthodox Ukraine will become autocephalous, this is obvious,” and Bartholomew’s actions on this issue “will bear fruit in the long term”.

Metropolitan Stephanos of Tallinn and All Estonia of the EAOC was born in Zaire (Belgian Congo, the Republic of Zaire since October 1971) in the family of a Greek Cypriot, and until 2004 was a citizen of Greece. In 2016, the hierarch of Constantinople proposed the Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (EOC MP) to unite under his authority. It is known that about 30 thousand residents of Estonia are members of the EAOC, and about 200 thousand people belong to the EOC MP.

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