DECR Deputy Head: UOC is more independent than Phanar’s Greek autocephaly

Protopriest Nikolai Danilevich

The Patriarchate of Constantinople has very difficult relations with its autocephaly – the Church of Hellas, noted Protopriest Nikolai Danilevich, deputy head of the Department for External Church Relations of the UOC, in an interview to Pershy Kozatsky (First Cossack).

“In one country, they have one autocephalous Church and four jurisdictions that are not subordinate to it,” said the priest. He stressed that the Metropolitan Ambrose of Kalavryta , as well as other hierarchs of the Hellenic Church had repeatedly appealed to the Patriarch of Constantinople to "bring the situation to some order."

Father Nikolai recalled numerous conflicts between Constantinople and Hellas, including because of the temples in Thessaloniki, and difficult relations between Patriarch Bartholomew and Archbishop Christodoulus of Athens and All Hellas .

The DECR deputy head believes that the UOC is more independent of the Russian Orthodox Church than the Greek Church of Constantinople, despite the fact that Hellas has autocephaly: “According to the Statute, in some respects, the UOC enjoys more internal independence within the fold of the Moscow Patriarchate than the Greek Church does having autocephalous status.”

In September 2018, the Church of Hellas called upon Patriarch Bartholomew to stop communication with dissenters from the UOC KP and the UAOC but he did not heed the call. On October 11, the Synod of the Constantinople Patriarchate announced the reestablishment of its Stavropegia in Kiev.

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