Warsaw, January 28, 2020
Met. Sawa with Pat. Theophilos in 2010. Photo: wikipedia.org
Despite reports coming from Greek media, His Beatitude Metropolitan of Sawa of Poland has not rejected His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem’s invitation to a gathering of the Orthodox primates to discuss the Ukrainian crisis and issues of Church unity in Jordan next month, according to a Polish Church representative.
According to orthodoxia.info’s “well-informed sources,” Met. Sawa told the Patriarch of Jerusalem that he would not attend because such a council would come to nothing if all the primates did not attend. Patriarch Bartholomew and several of the Greek primates have already announced that they will not attend the council, arguing that only the Patriarch of Constantinople can summon hierarchs to gather.
“It’s not true. He didn’t refuse. If there will be an official date, I think he will take part,” Met. Sawa’s assistant, Fr. George, told RIA-Novosti.
The Polish Church was among the first to officially reject the Ukrainian schismatics after they were “rehabilitated” by Constantinople. The hierarchs later officially rejected Pat. Bartholomew’s request to recognize the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” and in October, the Bishops’ Council of the Polish Church issued a statement saying that allowing schismatics in the Church violates the Eucharistic unity of the Church.
Earlier, in October of 2018, Met. Sawa called on Pat. Bartholomew to convene a pan-Orthodox council to resolve the Ukrainian crisis—a call that was repeated by the Polish primate and Synod and other hierarchs many times.
To date, only two Churches—of Russia and of the Czech Lands and Slovakia—have officially and publicly supported Pat. Theophilos’ initiative.
