Kythira, Greece, October 16, 2018
His Eminence Metropolitan Seraphim of Kythira and Antikythera has called upon the Greek Orthodox Church to formulate a response to the Church crisis situation in Ukraine, brought on by the recent announcement of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
The metropolitan sent a letter to the Holy Synod of the Greek Church with a request to convene an extraordinary session in connection with the situation in Ukraine, reports the Union of Orthodox Journalists. The full text of the letter has been published on Romfea.
Met. Seraphim was also among those Greek hierarchs who tried to get Ukraine on the agenda of the previous Synod meeting in early October, though the initiative was not successful.
In the document, Met. Seraphim, who has proven himself an outspoken critic of the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s unilateral actions in Ukraine, speaks about the possibility of civil unrest in Ukraine because of the Church crisis, as well as the threat of the persecution of the canonical Ukrainian Church.
Such persecution has already been happening for years, and has continued to happen since the Phanar’s statement.
The Greek hierarch also called upon the Synod to gather to discuss the urgent matter of the growing gap between the Greek and Slavic Churches. Note that his letter was written before yesterday’s meeting of the Russian Holy Synod, in which the Russian hierarchs resolved to break communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
His Eminence also earlier appealed to Patriarch Bartholomew, calling on him to cease his communication with Ukrainian schismatics and to thereby avoid the inevitable new schisms that Constantinople’s actions would cause, and which we now know have caused.
The metropolitan reminded the patriarch of the words of the holy hierarch St. John Chrysostom: “The sin of schism is not purged even by martyr’s blood,” calling on him to offer repentance for his actions.
“Now, for his own personal reasons, he is giving autocephaly to the schismatics of Ukraine and revising the sacred order and canonical Orthodox Archdiocese of Ukraine, which is recognized not only by the Russian Orthodox Church, but also by all other local Orthodox churches,” the hierarch’s previous document reads.
Follow us on Facebook!
