Jerusalem, January 19, 2019
His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem celebrated the great feast of Theophany today in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Notably, he did not concelebrate with any representatives from the Ukrainian schismatic church.
OrthoChristian reported on January 11 that His Beatitude and the Jerusalem Patriarchate were under heavy pressure from the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the states of Israel and the U.S. to recognize and concelebrate with representatives of the schismatic group created by Constantinople on December 15 in Kiev and given a tomos of autocephaly on January 6 in Istanbul. Though the majority of the bishops opposed such a move, it was unclear at that time what would happen, due to the extreme pressure from several sides.
Thus far, no Local Church, including the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, has recognized this new structure, let alone its autocephaly.
Alexander Drabinko, a former metropolitan and apostate from the canonical Ukrainian Church, was planning to go to Jerusalem and serve with the Patriarch for Theophany, but as is evident from videos posted on his Facebook page, he celebrated the feast in Kiev.
Moreover, a video of the Liturgy celebrated by Pat. Theophilos today was also posted on the Jerusalem Patriarchate’s Facebook page, where it can be seen that no Ukrainian schismatics concelebrated. The entire service was celebrated in Greek.
A photo gallery with more than 150 pictures from the feast is also available on the Patriarchate’s Facebook page.
Constantinople Exarch to Kiev Archbishop Daniel of Pamphylia predicted in an interview last week that the Local Churches would soon begin to recognize the Ukrainian schismatics and that the entire process would take only months, not years.
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