Mt. Athos, October 21, 2019
Patriarch Bartholomew presented Abbot Alexios of Xenophontos Monastery with the gift of a cross during the Patriarchal Divine Liturgy at the monastery on Mt. Athos on Sunday.
According to the Constantinople-friendly Greek outlet orthodoxia.info, the cross is one that Patriarch Kirill of Moscow previously gifted to Pat. Bartholomew.
Pat. Bartholomew placed the cross around Archimandrite Alexios’ neck, saying, “You unite those who are divided.”
As the Greek outlet comments, Pat. Bartholomew’s words were no accident, but are “directly related to developments in the Ukrainian question.”
Abbot Alexios was once a friend of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church, but has chosen to stand by Pat. Bartholomew in his decision to anti-canonically invade the territory of the Ukrainian Church and create a new group there, which is unrecognized in the Orthodox world.
Abbot Alexios was among the few Athonite fathers who attended and served at the enthronement of “Metropolitan” Epiphany Dumenko, the primate of the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” in February, and it was a hieromonk of Xenophotos who did the calligraphy work on the tomos of autocephaly given to the OCU a month earlier.
A delegation from the OCU first visited Mt. Athos later in February, where they were warmly received by Fr. Alexios, who invited them to speak at trapeza at Xenophontos. When a second delegation visited in April, a hierarch of the OCU served at Xenophontos. A third delegation in June again visited Xenophontos.
