Belgrade, November 18, 2022
Nativity of Christ Cathedral in Riga. Photo: termatour.com
The Latvian government’s recent actions regarding the status of the Latvian Orthodox Church, an autonomous body within the Moscow Patriarchate, are absurd and a gross violation of the state constitution, believes the Belgrade-based Center for the Protection of Christian Identity.
In early September, Latvian President Egils Levits submitted a draft law to Parliament that would change the status of the Latvian Church, making it completely independent of the Russian Church. The Parliament adopted the bill a few days later, and gave the Church until October 31 to amend its statues accordingly. A council of the Latvian Church held in late October made the relevant changes and appealed to the Moscow Patriarchate for a decision on its status.
“From a legal point of view, the adoption of the submitted bill is undoubtedly a gross violation of the constitution of Latvia and the current principle of separation of Church and state,” reads the appeal signed by Diogenis Valavanidis, president of the Center for the Protection of Christian Identity, reports Interfax-Religion.
The Center is an NGO founded in 2015 by Valavanidis, who in 2013 was awarded the Order of St. Constantine by His Holiness Patriarch Irinej of Serbia for his “decades of dedicated work on the preservation and protection of Serbian heritage, mainly churches and monasteries in Kosovo and Metohija.”
Moreover, the fact that the Latvian Parliament, consisting mostly of Catholics and Lutherans, should decide the status of the Latvian Orthodox Church is absurd and cynical, the appeal states.
The government’s argument that the Latvian Church’s autonomous status within the Russian Church is a threat to national security is absurd, the Center writes.
“We would like to know how this statement can be supported, given that the Latvian Orthodox Church has in no way shown and does not show any signs of disloyalty to the state.”
The Center also emphasizes that the current splitting of Orthodox unity began with Patriarch Bartholomew’s “catastrophic decision” to create the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine.” And regarding the recognition of the OCU by the heads of other Greek Churches, the Center reminds that ethnophyletism is a heresy that was condemned in 1872.
Thus, “recognizing the so-called Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople placed himself above the Lord Jesus Christ, above the Apostles, above the Ecumenical Council and the Holy Fathers who left us the holy canons,” the statement reads.
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