New York, May 24, 2019
The Oder of St. Andrew the Apostle (the Archons) of the Patriarchate of Constantinople announced yesterday a forthcoming publication on the Patriarchate’s creation of and granting of autocephaly to the so-called “Orthodox Church of Ukraine.”
The Ecumenical Patriarchate and Ukraine Autocephaly: Historical, Canonical, and Pastoral Perspectives, an eBook collection of 12 essays by various clergy and laity “will offer readers insightful and discerning perspectives on the most pressing issue facing the Orthodox Church today,” according to the Archons’ website.
The book “will prove an invaluable resource to all people seeking truthfulness and integrity in information on Ukraine Autocephaly,” the report adds.
Patriarch Bartholomew raised the same issue in his visit to the headquarters of the Journalists’ Union of Athens Daily Newspapers yesterday morning, where he emphasized that new technology has dramatically changed the way we communicate and facilitates “the manipulation of individuals and peoples,” reports Romfea.
In particular, he said that the phenomenon of the media creating its own truth for its own purposes is especially seen with the current Ukrainian Church issue.
“Regarding this issue and the Patriarchate’s stance, a lot of false information have been fed to the media, such as falsified historical facts and distorted truth while the true facts have been carefully or/and deliberately concealed,” Pat. Bartholomew said.
Recall that His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia personally proposed to Pat. Bartholomew to hold a meeting of scholars and hierarchs to discuss the historical documents concerning the Kiev Metropolis’ relationship with the Patriarchates of Constantinople and Moscow.
Pat. Bartholomew refused this offer to explore the history openly.
The primate of Constantinople has complained of “fake news” surrounding the Ukrainian issue before. Speaking at a meeting of the Constantinople city government in October, he referred to the “black propaganda” and “well-paid-for articles” coming from Russia and supposedly aimed against him.
It is notable that the Patriarchate of Constantinople’s own resources are rarely used for publishing information from its point of view. The official Patriarchate website has not published any news since April 30, and very few concerning Ukraine since the current crisis began over a year ago. The Patriarchate’s Facebook page has also not been updated in two weeks, and rarely addresses the Ukrainian issue, though it does so more often than the official website.
Conversely, it is notable that Ukrainian media has spread a number of fake news pieces concerning the Ukrainian issue, often claiming that one or another Church has recognized the Ukrainian schismatics. This has happened with the Georgian Church and multiple times with the Cypriot Church, among others. Most recently, Ukrainian media falsely claimed earlier this week that the Bulgarian Church had decided to recognize the Ukrainian schismatics, although the Synod had not even convened since April.
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The authors of the Archons’ new book include a number of notable Patriarchate of Constantinople enthusiasts and ideological supporters of the autocephalist-nationalist movement in Ukraine: Fr. John Chryssavgis, a prominent spokesman for Constantinople; Fr. Nicholas Denysenko, a deacon of the OCA who also participated in the Archons’ recent unsuccessful “Town Hall” event; Fr. Perry Hamalis; Fr. Bohdan Hladio; Fr. Cyril Hovorun, an archimandrite of the canonical Ukrainian Church who nevertheless fully supports the nationalistic autocephaly movement but was barred by Constantinople from attending the “unification council”; Archbishop Job of Telmessos, who was a prominent spokesman for Constantinople in the early months of the current Ukrainian crisis; Dr. Daniela Kalkandjieva; Archon Dr. Lewis Patsavos; Mother Abbess Theoxeni of Chrysopigi; Dr. Gayle Woloschak, who is associated with the scandalous Public Orthodoxy and the journal The Wheel; and Archon Evagelos Sotiropoulos (Editor).
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