The
Russian Orthodox Church (RPTs) is trying to split world
Orthodoxy, the
ambassador of the U.S.A. to Greece, Geoffrey R. Pyatt, declared
on 9 December,
the official website of the American embassy in Greece reports.
As
reported, during a conference on religious diplomacy, which was
held in an
on-line format, Geoffrey Pyatt stated that "Greece and the
United States
work as strategic partners in order to respond to challenges
that Russia casts
down to our democratic values and, in particular, to the freedom
of religious
expression here in Europe."
He
emphasized that the American Commission on International
Religious Freedom
called Russia a "country that evokes special concern for
systematic,
continuing, and blatant violation of freedom of religious
confession."
"Russia not only casts challenges to the authority of the
ecumenical
patriarch, but it also continues its attempts to destroy the
unity of the
Orthodox church, inflaming instability, and undermining the
sovereignty of
independent nations with an Orthodox majority," Pyatt said.
The
ambassador declared that a group of local churches that have
recognized the
autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine now includes the
Church of
Greece, Church of Alexandria and all Africa, and the Church of
Cyprus, and this
list "will continue to grow."
He
also was disturbed by the fact that "literally in this month,
Metropolitan
Ilarion falsely stated, in the name of the Russian church, that
the ecumenical
patriarch initiated a schism."
We
recall that in early 2019, due to the unification of two
uncanonical Ukrainian
schismatic religious structures, that were not recognized by a
single local
church—the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate
(UPTsKP) and the
Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAPTs)—a new religious
structure, the
Orthodox Church of Ukraine (PTsU), was created in Ukraine.
Patriarch
of Constantinople Bartholomew granted to the PTsU autocephaly
and the status of
a local metropolitanate of the patriarchate of Constantinople,
encroaching on
the canonical territory of the Russian Orthodox Church (RPTs),
which evoked a
sharp reaction from the RPTs. As a result, the RPTs cut off any
relations with
the Constantinople patriarchate.
At the
present time, the PTsU has been recognized by, in addition to
the patriarchate
of Constantinople, the Greek church and the Alexandrine
patriarchate. The
primate of the Cypriot church recognized the PTsU unilaterally,
doing this
contrary to the position of his own Holy Synod.
The
only canonical Orthodox church in Ukraine that is recognized by
all churches is
the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. (tr.
by PDS, posted
12 December 2020)
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