While the Orthodox Church of Greece has yet to make any official decision regarding the Constantinople-created “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” (OCU), new information indicates that that the hierarchs are strongly considering recognizing the schismatic structure.
Moreover, Constantinople’s continuing pressure could lead to a schism among the 20 ruling monasteries of Mt. Athos.
The OCU was created in December and granted a tomos of autocephaly
by Constantinople in January, but has thus far failed to achieve
recognition by any Church other than Constantinople. Several branches
of Orthodoxy, including the Serbian Church, the Polish Church, and the
Orthodox Church in America have rejected and explicitly referred to
the OCU as schismatics. Several others have expressed serious
concerns and called for a pan-Orthodox council to resolve the ongoing
issue.
Certain hierarchs of the Greek Church have effectively recognized the OCU for themselves: Several have already concelebrated with representatives of the OCU,
and an archimandrite from the Metropolis of Demetrias and Almyros was
even released to become a “bishop” in the OCU. There have been no
reports of any of these hierarchs being reprimanded or sanctioned by
the Greek Synod in any way.
However, the most influential voice in the Greek Church in favor of
recognizing the OCU, has been His Eminence Metropolitan Hierotheos
(Vlachos) of Nafpaktos, an internationally-recognized theologian. Met.
Hierotheos has not served with the OCU, but has written several
essays detailing his view of the prerogatives of the Patriarchate of
Constantinople and arguing that the Greek Church (and, in fact, no
Local Church) has no right to object to what Constantinople has done. The OCU must be accepted, he writes, until a pan-Orthodox council can take up the matter.
Read the rest here.
4 comments:
Metropolitan Hierotheos is part of the problem. After all his big talk, he turns out to be lukewarm. He makes an issue out of not calling the heterodox churches churches, but he supports a patriarch who does exactly that. This is what drives people to the Greek Old Calendar churches.
Or to abandon the Church.
The Greeks will blow up the Communion rather than recognize that world Orthodoxy no longer revolves around a few Greek islands in the Mediterranean. What bizarre people.
You nailed it. They’ve got hardly anything left to lose and so much to gain by doing the divisive bidding of Turk and Uncle Sam. Metallinos wrote extensively about the Romaioi vs. Franks in the modern period; I submit that the Fener has gone over to collaborate with its civilizational adversaries in order to find new relevance in the long war against Russia and its sphere of influence. Patriarchs of C’ple have been splitting the Orthodox world, and even the Greek Church in order to cozy up to Europe and marginalize the Russian and other Slavic Churches.
Hellenes (there aren’t any more Romaioi) would rather alienate themselves from the mainstream of Orthodoxy — steadily moving away from its norms now for 150+ years — than simply be part of a cohesive community of faith. The Phanariot only wants a Church that privileges Hellenism above all cultures and will make any deal with the devil to maintain their Romaic dream.
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