Phanar: Filaret schism results from transfer of Kiev Metropolis to ROC

Patriarch Bartholomew with the “hierarchs” of the OCU. Photo: pomisna.info

On August 22, 2021, during a liturgy on the territory of St. Sophia of Kyiv, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople declared that Filaret schism resulted from the transfer of the Kiev Metropolis to the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church.

In his speech, the head of Phanar tried to justify the granting of the Tomos to the OCU without the consent of other Local Churches. He noted that through the Baptism of Rus by Prince Vladimir "important ecclesiastical relations between Constantinople and Kiev, the relationship of life, truth and love, were strengthened."

Patriarch Bartholomew called these relations "inviolable". According to him, the transfer of the See of the Kiev metropolitans was "conditioned by secular motives", which ultimately "led to the fact that the Kiev Diocese was cut off from Constantinople against its will and subordinated to the northern countries."

The head of Phanar is sure that "there has been a centuries-long struggle in Kiev to ensure that the latter is not deprived of the spiritual and canonical protection of Constantinople mother church."

That is why, according to Patriarch Bartholomew, "naturally and inevitably" there happened "everything that followed from the church side, i.e. separation from the center, attempts to forcefully excommunicate you from us led to a final separation that could not be restored from within."

“This forced us eventually to make a peremptory decision at our own discretion (to grant the Tomos to the OCU – Ed.),” the head of Phanar emphasized.

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that Phanar is ready to listen to the problems of the UOC, but within the framework of the canonical tradition.

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