ROC: Pat. Bartholomew removed autocephaly issue from the agenda in Crete

Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev). Photo: iz.ru

The head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk, in an interview with the Greek newspaper “Romfea”, said that Patriarch Bartholomew had removed the issue of Ukrainian autocephaly from the agenda of the Council of Crete, reports the website of the ROC DECR.

Metropolitan Hilarion noted that “the topic of autocephaly was discussed many times during the pre-Council process, namely during the meetings of the Inter-Orthodox Preparatory Commission in 1993, 2009 and 2011”.

He emphasized that “the text of the document ‘Autocephaly and the method of its proclamation’ was almost completely agreed upon,” and “all Churches, represented by their representatives, agreed that the granting of autocephaly in the future would be possible only with the approval of all Local Churches, and not by the unilateral decision of the Ecumenical Patriarch".

“It only remained to agree on the form the tomos of autocephaly would be signed – no agreement was reached on this topic. And what happened then? In April 2011, Patriarch Bartholomew sent letters to the Local Orthodox Churches with a proposal to remove the topic of autocephaly from the agenda and hold a Pan-Orthodox Council. The Russian Church agreed with this proposal, but that was a big mistake,” says Metropolitan Hilarion.

As reported earlier, according to Metropolitan Hilarion, Patriarch Bartholomew promised not to interfere in Ukraine and played foul.

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