Zimbabwe, February 8, 2022
Photo: oikoumene.org
The Patriarchate of Constantinople created the problem of Church unity by ignoring conciliar Church decisions, and now the Russian Church is invading Alexandrian territory, His Eminence Metropolitan Seraphim of Zimbabwe writes in a new reflection.
In this situation, the Church needs to reclaim its synodal process, with the participation of all Local Churches, allowing the voice of the majority to prevail under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Met. Seraphim has repeatedly stressed the need for a council to heal the crisis in the Church and has spoken against the creation of the “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” and its recognition.
What’s happening in Kenya, with the “forcible occupation of our holy churches with the guidance of our Russian brothers” is tragic, the Metropolitan opens his article, published by the Orthodoxia News Agency.
World leaders who are in power too long tend to drag their people, and the whole world with them, into disaster, and it’s sad that “the spiritual leadership follows them in everything on the path of self-destruction.” Arrogance is as easily transmitted as the coronavirus, Met. Seraphim laments, and “this is the case with the presence of our beloved Russian brothers in our Patriarchate in Africa.”
We need our Orthodox primates to play the role that befits them and to protect the visible unity of the Church. And may we all pray for peaceful dialogue to prevail for such protection of unity, as occurred at the First Ecumenical Council, when the Holy Fathers laid down the principle that the voice of the majority should prevail (Canon 6).
However, this principle was violated when four Local Churches didn’t attend the Crete Council in 2016, Met. Seraphim writes, and then “without taking into account the texts of the work of the Inter-Orthodox Meetings on the subject of autocephaly,” Patriarch Bartholomew granted autocephaly to the so-called “Orthodox Church of Ukraine, and this began the threat to the visible unity of the Local Orthodox Churches, the Zimbabwe hierarch writes.
Even those who support the autocephalous church of Ukraine disagree with how it was accomplished, and it must be remembered that 10 Local Churches continue to insist on dialogue with the participation of all Churches.
Thus, there should be a synaxis of the primates, to consider all matters with love, sure of the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Met. Seraphim proposes.
Perhaps a small inter-Orthodox committee, consisting of representatives from Constantinople, Alexandria, Moscow, and other Church that so desires, could be formed to record the positions of the Local Churches on the issues that face the Church today. We also have to change how inter-Orthodox meetings worked from 1960-2016, the Metropolitan believes, in favor of allowing the voice of the majority to prevail.
It is noteworthy that Met. Seraphim acknowledges that the Antiochian Church didn’t attend the Crete council because of its dispute with the Jerusalem Patriarchate over the territory of Qatar, whereas Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and other hierarchs have repeatedly insisted that Antioch backed out only under pressure from the Russian Church.
It would be good to continue the work of Crete every seven years, as was proposed by the primates of the Serbian and Romanian Churches, the Alexandrian hierarch states.
When the Moscow-Constantinople crisis began, the Churches of Alexandria and Cyprus initially insisted upon dialogue, Met. Seraphim recalls, but this didn’t happen, “and what happened happened.” Now we need prudence, humility, and love, with respect for the Synodal character of the Church.
Everyone acknowledges that as the second largest Orthodox country, Ukraine has the right to an autocephalous Church, but its autocephaly must be a cause for unity both in Ukraine and in the entire Church, Met. Seraphim encourages.
Further, the importance of the modern missionary ministry should be emphasized and supported by all the Local Churches.
And if the Churches are able to come together in dialogue, this will show the primates as the successors to the Apostles, who worked conciliarly, under the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, finding solutions where people didn’t think they existed.
Finally, the institution of the universality of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Local Orthodox primates would be preserved and strengthened in such a difficult time for the world.
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The Russian Church waited patiently for more than two years for the Greek Patriarchs to come to their senses. Thank God they have brought a canonical Church back to Africa. No one who communes with Epiphanius, the false bishop of Kiev is canonical.
If the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church wants autocephalous status it’s canonical head, Metropolitan Onuphry will ask for it. The OCU leaders appointed by the Patriarch of Constantinople are not even clergy and have ties to many shady groups including some with neo-Nazi ties.
The patriarch of Alexandria should repent, now and without condition. Perhaps the Church of Russia will show mercy and restore the old order.
Finally, it should be clear to all that the Patriarch of Constantinople is a petty, vain greedy man who is the biggest stumbling block to Orthodoxy unity. He should resign or be removed and absent that his dying See should just be ignored by the rest of world Orthodoxy.