Belgrade, December 15, 2025
Photo: Zaporozhye Diocese
The Jerusalem Patriarchate could be considered a new focal point for Church unity, as it actively works towards such, whereas the Patriarchate of Constantinople is actively divisive, suggests His Eminence Metropolitan Luke of Zaporozhye of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Met. Luke presented a paper titled “The Ecumenical Offensive as an Instrument of Geopolitics: Media, Finance and Diplomacy of the Vatican and the Phanar” at an international conference in Belgrade on December 11. The Center for Geostrategic Studies organized the conference “The Crucifixion of Orthodoxy in the 21st Century: Spiritual Wars, Ecumenical Offensive and Global Politics,” reports the Zaporozhye Diocese.
His Eminence writes that modern geopolitical struggle extends into the spiritual sphere, affecting Church life and distorting canonical order. He argues that ecumenical initiatives of the Vatican and Constantinople are transforming from platforms for dialogue into instruments of “soft power” for forming geopolitical alliances, pressuring Local Orthodox Churches, and justifying secular state interference in Church processes.
The Metropolitan identifies media as a key pressure tool, noting that Constantinople uses outlets including Orthodox Times, Ecumenical Patriarchate News, and Greek Reporter to shape interpretations favorably. He cites media coverage of the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” during 2018-2020, with the OCU portrayed as “canonical” while the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was depicted as disconnected from the Ukrainian people.
Met. Luke also discusses external financial support for Phanar's projects from Greek diaspora structures in the United States, American diplomatic funds, and transnational organizations.
Met. Luke also identifies risks including doctrinal blurring and institutional subordination to the Vatican, polarization within the Orthodox world, instrumentalization of religion by secular states, loss of trust among believers, and escalation of inter-Orthodox conflicts.
The hierarch suggests a systematic strategy including launching a multilingual media platform for Orthodox unity, preparing educational series on canonical territory and ecumenism, strengthening social and humanitarian programs, introducing mandatory courses on modern challenges to Orthodoxy, and conducting annual inter-Orthodox forums.
He proposes considering the Jerusalem Patriarchate as a potential center capable of uniting Local Churches, arguing that unlike Constantinople, which provokes disagreements, the Jerusalem Church actively works to strengthen unity. He suggests regular meetings of primates and Synodal commissions of Local Churches maintaining Eucharistic communion, preparing a joint document “On the Boundaries of Ecumenical Dialogue and Preservation of Canonical Purity,” and creating a permanent Secretariat for Orthodox unity.
Additional recommendations include supporting an international legal group to represent persecuted communities in the European Court of Human Rights, UN, and OSCE; filing collective appeals for discrimination against the canonical Church; issuing joint statements within 72 hours when sanctions are imposed against any hierarch; increasing conciliar anathematizations of modern ecumenism and Eastern papism; reviving public reading of the Synodicon of Orthodoxy with contemporary threats; creating an analytical center to track ecumenical and geopolitical threats; requiring annual publication of reports on foreign grants; and establishing an Inter-Orthodox Commission to monitor financing.
The Metropolitan concludes that ecumenical initiatives of the Vatican and Phanar have turned into a full-scale geopolitical project using media, finance, and diplomacy to change Orthodoxy’s canonical landscape. He states that the response can only be firm standing in truth supported by mature strategy, systematic defense, inter-Church solidarity, and independent information presence.
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