DECR ROC: Division in Universal Orthodoxy is a fait accompli

Metropolitan Hilarion. Photo: doctorantura.ru

Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the DECR ROC, said that the split in World Orthodoxy is a fait accompli. This is reported by the official website of the Russian Orthodox Church.

According to Metropolitan Hilarion, after the granting of the Tomos to the Ukrainian schismatics, a situation was created that is increasingly difficult to resolve and very similar to the events of the mid-11th century.

“Then the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Pope fell out. Separation occurred. I do not think that the legates of the Pope, who put the bull of excommunication on the throne of the Cathedral of Hagia Sophia, assumed that the separation would last for centuries. In turn, Patriarch of Constantinople, who took retaliatory actions, could hardly imagine this as well. Yet the Churches went their own way,” Vladyka recalled.

According to him, the first step to heal the current situation in Universal Orthodoxy "should have been a return to the situation in which all Orthodox Churches were until 2018, when decisions were made conciliarly, rather than individually."

“But it’s hard to imagine that the Patriarch of Constantinople would want to return to square one. He now considers himself entitled to make individual decisions without consulting other Churches, against their will and to their detriment," he stressed.

Metropolitan Hilarion recalled that the hierarchs of the Patriarchate of Constantinople insist that "Ukrainian autocephaly is a fait accompli." "Well, since this is so," says the Vladyka, "division in Universal Orthodoxy is also a fait accompli."

The hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church noted that “we grieve over this division. We pray for the enlightenment of both the Patriarch of Constantinople and those primates and hierarchs who, under his pressure, recognized the schism. "

“We believe that the conciliar sanity of the Church can heal a schism in Universal Orthodoxy. But we must look at things realistically: given that the conciliar mechanisms at the inter-Orthodox level have been destroyed, it is difficult to achieve,” Metropolitan Hilarion summed up.

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that the Russian Church spoke about the reasons for the creation of its Exarchate in Africa.

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