Jerusalem, November 22, 2019
Photo: spzh.news
Following Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens’ and Patriarch Theodoros of Alexandria’s decision to recognize the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” international media has been abuzz with speculation about which Local Church will be the next to recognize.
Many believe the Patriarchate of Jerusalem will be next, as its hierarchs are in the same Greek world as Constantinople, Alexandria, and the Church of Greece, and it is also dependent upon the Greek state, though to a lesser degree than is the Patriarchate of Alexandria.
Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem is currently in Moscow, where he concelebrated with Patriarch Kirill and was given the Patriarch Alexei II Award for working towards Church unity from the International Public Foundation for the Unity of Orthodox Peoples.
During his acceptance speech, Pat. Theophilos stated that he invites the primates of all the Local Churches to convene in Jordan to discuss the preservation of Church unity in Eucharistic communion. Holding such a meeting in Jordan would allow the hierarchs of the Antiochian Church to attend, as Syria and Lebanon do not allow their citizens to travel to Israel.
Further, as a source close to the leadership of the Patriarchate recently told RIA-Novosti, Pat. Theophilos does not intend to change his stance in favor of the canonical Ukrainian Church and its primate His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine despite the pressure he is under from American politicians.
Pat. Theophilos successfully withstood the pressure to concelebrate with schismatics in January and he canceled a meeting with former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, instead hosting a delegation from the canonical Ukrainian Church the next day.
“Patriarch Theophilos is under pressure from the United States. However, the source of the pressure is not the American embassy and the Israeli Foreign Ministry, as some media reported, but representatives of the U.S. Democratic Party,” the source told RIA-Novosti.
“First of all we are talking about diplomats appointed by Hillary Clinton when she was Secretary of State,” the source added.
In particular, the Patriarch received a letter from Joe Biden, Obama’s Vice President who personally supervised the Ukrainian direction of foreign policy and whose family’s ties in Ukraine are a major news item at the moment.
Joe Biden has met with Patriarch Bartholomew many times, and in 2015 Constantinople’s Order of St. Andrew bestowed upon him the Patriarch Athenagoras Human Rights Award, which it gave to Epiphany Dumenko, the primate of the schismatic OCU, this year.
In September of last year, he met with “Patriarch” Philaret Denisenko, who bestowed upon him the Order of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir the Great, 2nd Degree. For his part, Biden spoke of the importance of an autocephalous Ukrainian Church.
“There are no direct threats from the Democrats—it’s not in their style. Various hints are made, vague argumentations arise, from which Pat. Theophilos himself should draw conclusions. That is, we are talking about skillfully veiled pressure,” said the source.
However, Pat. Theophilos does not intend to change his stance, the source said. He will continue to recognize the canonical UOC under Met. Onuphry. This is confirmed, the source said, by the fact that at he concelebrated with hierarchs of the canonical Church at the Holy Sepulchre in September.
“Theophilos will not follow the example of his Greek brethren, Archbishop Ieronymos of Greece and Patriarch Theodoros of Alexandria, in recognizing the OCU. He is independent from the Greeks, besides he has strained relations with Constantinople: Patriarch Bartholomew was against his election in 2005,” the source said.
