ROC declares it is not bound to comply with Phanar’s decisions on Ukraine

DECR Secretary of the Moscow Patriarchate on Inter-Orthodox Relations Protopriest Igor Yakimchuk

In such a manner Protopriest Igor Yakimchuk, DECR Secretary of the Moscow Patriarchate on inter-Orthodox relations, commented on the statement of Patriarch Bartholomew that the ROC "will sooner or later accept the decisions" of Constantinople regarding Ukraine, reports Interfax .

"The Russian Church, like any other local Orthodox Church, is not obliged to obey the decisions of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, since the canons of the Ecumenical Councils, which Patriarch Bartholomew alludes to, do not endow him with any authority outside his Patriarchate," the representative of the Russian Orthodox Church said on October 23.

He noted that the canons, mentioned by Patriarch Bartholomew, used to rank the Bishop of Constantinople second after Rome in the list of Churches that existed at that time, explaining this elevation by the fact that Constantinople became the seat of the king and the senate.

“Now that the Byzantine Empire no longer exists, and Istanbul is not even the capital of Turkey, there are no canonical foundations even for the symbolic primacy of the Constantinople Patriarchate in the Orthodox world,” the agency’s source said. 

As the UOJ reported, on the eve Patriarch Bartholomew declared: “Whether our Russian brothers like it or not, soon enough they will have to accept the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s solution, as they will have no other choice”, and added that the privileges of the Constantinople Patriarchate are rooted in the canons of the Ecumenical Councils, everyone in Orthodoxy being obliged to respect them.

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