Istanbul, April 20, 2022
Photo: ekklisiaonline.gr
Patriarch Bartholomew has dropped his plans to convene the primates of the “ancient autocephalous Churches” to condemn the Russian Orthodox Church, reports the pro-Constantinople Greek outlet Ekklisia Online.
Constantinople had intended to hold the meeting before Holy Week.
According to the article, the plans to condemn the Moscow Patriarchate for creating an African Exarchate were quietly withdrawn after Constantinople saw that the invited primates weren’t particularly interested and that the threat of condemnation had done nothing to deter the Russian Church’s expansion into Africa.
Russian priests continue to travel throughout various African countries, celebrating services and receiving petitions from clergy to be received into the Russian Church. In February, the Synodal Court of the Patriarchate of Alexandria declared Archpriests George Maximov and Andrei Novikov of the Moscow Patriarchate defrocked for their activity on the Patriarchate’s territory, though the Russian Church has of course ignored this ruling.
Pat. Bartholomew and Pat. Theodoros of Alexandria had planned to gather together with the Patriarchs of Antioch and Jerusalem and the Archbishop of Cyprus, in a kind of relaunched Pentarchy of ancient autocephalous Churches, though by the time the invitation was handed to His Beatitude Patriarch John X of Antioch in mid-February, the plans had been reduced to no longer include the Archbishop of Cyprus.
According to Constantinople, Antioch had “reiterated [its] desire to jointly contribute to the consolidation of Pan-Orthodox unity through another Synaxis of the primates of the senior Patriarchates in the near future,” but Antioch issued its own statement making it clear that Pat. John had made no such commitment, as the matter could only be decided by its Holy Synod, which met only in early March.
The hierarchs indirectly responded to Constantinople’s invitation:
They reiterated the position of the Patriarchate of Antioch stressing the necessity to return to the principle of consensus and unanimity of all Orthodox Churches, those recognized by the family of Local Churches, in what relates to the joint Orthodox work and the efforts to find solutions to controversial issues challenging the Orthodox world. Consensus and unanimity guarantee the unity of the Orthodox Church.
And it follows from the Ekklisia Online report that His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem also rejected Pat. Bartholomew’s invitation.
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