Belarusian Orthodox Church condemns Constantinople’s anti-canonical incursion into Ukraine

Minsk, September 12, 2018

Photo: spzh.news Photo: spzh.news
    

The Holy Synod of the Belarusian Orthodox Church met yesterday to discuss the recent appointment by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of two exarch bishops in Kiev as a preparatory move towards granting autocephaly to a united Ukrainian Church at the request of President Petro Poroshenko.

The synodal meeting produced a 6-point document “in connection with the anti-canonical interference of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople in the internal affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church,” of which the Belarusian Church is an exarchate.

The document reads in full:

THE SYNOD OF THE BELARUSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH RESOLVES:

1. With one heart and one voice to support the position of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church expressed in its official statement from September 8, 2018 in connection with the appointment of two hierarchs of the Patriarchate of Constantinople—Archbishop Daniel of Pamphilon and Bishop Ilarion of Edmonton—as “exarchs” of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in the city of Kiev.

2. To express protest against the act of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, inasmuch as it constitutes the aggressive interference of one local Church in the internal affairs of another Local Church, aimed at disrupting the foundations of inter-Orthodox peace and unity.

3. To call on the clergy and flock of the Belarusian Exarchate to lift up special prayers to the Lord for the speedy healing and overcoming of the current situation, and for the admonition and repentance of those who provoke Church disorder and schisms, and for the welfare of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the establishment of peace in the Ukrainian land.

4. To express full support for His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine—the canonical primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church—the archpastors, clergy, pious laity, and children of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

5. To testify to the indissoluble spiritual unity of the Orthodox Christian fraternal peoples of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine who are children of the Russian Orthodox Church, encompassing within its care historical Rus’, spiritually born in the Kievan baptismal font.

6. To express hope for God’s help in the peaceful settlement of this difficult situation to preserve the unity of the Orthodox world.

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9/12/2018

See also
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