Istanbul, February 1, 2019
Photo: svoboda.org A delegation from the Patriarchate of Constantinople will participate in the enthronement of “Metropolitan” Epiphany Dumenko in Kiev this Sunday, February 3, though Patriarch Bartholomew will not be a part of it, reports the Greek site Romfea.
“The Patriarch will be in Constantinople this weekend. The Ecumenical Patriarch never participates in the enthronement of primates,” the Patriarchate told Romfea, but it is possible that he will soon travel to Ukraine on an official visit.
Recall that when Pat. Bartholomew visited Kiev in 2008 for the celebration of the Baptism of Rus’, he did so at the invitation of His Holiness Patriarch Alexei II of Moscow and All Russia, as he noted during his toast at the banquet hosted by His Beatitude Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev and All Ukraine on July 27, 2008, according to the text published on the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s website: “Most reverend beloved brother Metropolitan of Kiev, our presence here after the generous invitation of His Beatitude, the Patriarch Alexei and His Excellency, President YUSHCHENKO has the meaning of a brotherly support…”
Canonically, a hierarch can enter the territory of another only with a blessing from the local hierarch, and as Pat. Bartholomew himself stated in his speech to the Ukrainian nation on July 26, 2008: “The Church of Ukraine … was under the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s canonical jurisdiction for seven centuries, that is, from the baptism of the Grand Duchy of Kiev (988) until her annexation under Peter the Great (1687).”
The delegation from Constantinople is expected to include Metropolitan Emmanuel of Gaul, Metropolitan Amphilochius of Adrianople, the Patriarchate’s Exarch to Kiev Archimandrite Michael Anischenko, and the abbots of two Athonite monasteries—Fr. Ephraim of Vatopedi and Fr. Alexios of Xenophontos.
The Sacred Community of Mt. Athos voted on January 28 not to send a delegation to the enthronement, though Abbots Ephraim and Alexios will attend as part of the delegation from Constantinople at the request of Patriarch Bartholomew.
The Greek site orthodoxia.info argued that the Sacred Community of Mt. Athos rejected the request to send an enthronement only because it has the tradition of only sending a delegation to the enthronement of Patriarchs of Constantinople, though this information is false. For example, a delegation from Mt. Athos, consisting of Abbot Peter of Dionysiou, Hieromonk Photios from Grigoriou, and Hieromonk Kirion from St. Panteleimon’s Monastery, attended the enthronement of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia just 10 years ago.
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