Cypriot bishop: West ignores religious rights of 13 mln parishioners of UOC

Metropolitan Isaiah of Tamassos. Photo: romfea.gr

The actions of Western countries and Patriarch Bartholomew to recognize schismatics in Ukraine led to the ignorance of the religious rights of 13 million believers of the UOC and jeopardizes the future unity of all Orthodoxy, hierarch of the Cypriot Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Isaiah of Tamassos, said in an interview with “Romfea”.

He describes the actions of the West and the Phanar as "selective and discriminatory" and "the deafening silence and ignorance of the religious rights of the 13 mln Ukrainian Orthodox, who do not want to sever their relationship with their Mother (as they believe) Church of Russia". The Cypriot hierarch notes that, following the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the OCU is recognized only by those Churches that belong to the Western sphere of influence or declare that they have good relations and alliances with the West. And this happens because "we have confused the History and Theology of the Orthodox Church with the foreign policy of the states, with the result that the future of Orthodox unity is seriously jeopardized".

Metropolitan Isaiah believes that in the face of this overlapping international interest, it should be borne in mind that independence and self-determination in the Orthodox Churches of independent states are decided not by the Church alone, but by the Pan-Orthodox Synod, and this procedure begins with the Mother Church, followed by the decision of the Synod of Orthodox Churches, and, consequently, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, authorized by the Synod of the Orthodox Churches, through the privileges it possesses.

As reported earlier, the bishop of the Church of Cyprus expressed his love and support to the persecuted communities of the UOC and called on the believers to remain faithful to the canonical Church, headed by His Beatitude Onuphry.
 

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