Posted on 09/01/2018 8:42:33 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I has informed Patriarch Kirill of Moscow of his plans to grant autocephaly to the Ukrainian church. Their meeting took place in Istanbul, Turkey.
"First, there was a meeting in front of all the members of the Synod. Then there were tete-a-tete talks, only with translation," Kyiv Archbishop Yevstratiy (Zorya), wrote on Facebook on August 31.
Later, Metropolitan of France Emmanuel came out to reporters. He represented Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I at the celebration of the 1030th anniversary of the Baptism of Kyiv Rus in Kyiv in July 2018.
"He made a short statement, "We have informed the Patriarch about the decision to overcome the split in Ukraine and to provide autocephaly, which is being implemented," Zorya wrote and noted that an official wording is expected later.
"In general, the outcome of the negotiations for Ukraine gives grounds for cautious optimism."
(Excerpt) Read more at unian.info ...
I saw this yesterday along with a handful of similar rumors and reports from sources of dubious reliability. If this were true there would have been more widespread reports of the same kind. Instead we have a fairly bland report on the meeting from the website of the Russian Orthodox Church. It is possible that this may be where things are going. But if the EP had made such an intention clear I think it would have been trumpeted by the schismatics, which has not happened.
See these...
https://mospat.ru/en/2018/08/31/news163239/
https://mospat.ru/en/2018/08/31/news163232/
Indeed hence why Archbishop Zorya stressed ‘cautious optimism.’ Apparently several Greek-language sources confirmed the above account also.
I am praying for Kiev’s independence, and for the integrity of Christendom - especially so long as Patriarch Kirill and others like him set the course for Russian Orthodoxy. Very unfortunate state of affairs. Like Pope Francis, he needs to go.
Only this week, before a crew of representatives from Kim Jong Un’s government: Kirill announced he is sending a delegation to North Korea in October to celebrate 70 years of Russia-DPRK ties. He has not once ever took North Korea to task for its assault against Christianity and Christian lives. ROC leaders have only posed for ribbon cuttings and things in Pyongyang in years past.
I find it insulting and a mockery of the faith.
About time.
We believe in the power of dialogue. If political leaders use dialogue to solve the problems of their countries, the more so we, religious leaders, should use the way of dialogue for solving problems...
Problem: Kirill IS a political leader and has lost credibility to speak with any moral and spiritual authority. Russia is currently occupying 1/3 of Ukrainian territory and one of the defining features of this occupation is the entrenchment of ROC figures in places of jurisdiction over the regions in contention.
The ROC is at this point indistinct from the Kremlin. Under their watch, Catholic nuns convents have been shut down, Ukrainian Orthodox clergy beaten, Evangelical communities raided, etc...SHAME.
From 2nd article:
Primates, ‘much has happened in the life of our Church, and the whole situation in the world has greatly changed’.
Indeed it has. The ROC screwed up. Big time. Lots of loyal followers lost, especially in Ukraine. And the War (the military/political dimension, not just the religious) is on them.
Their attempts to define the terms of their wannabe 'crusade' in Syria - another story.
To clarify when I say the war in Ukraine is on them (the ROC) - I don’t mean that there is not plenty of blame to go around including the hyper-nationalist elements present in Ukraine’s religious bodies.
But count me among the people which at one point looked to the ROC to be the voice of moral authority to our crazed-out secular Western world! Their warmongering and Putin-sycophanting changed that.
Thanks.
The first time you hear it, it sounds like a disease...
This St. Petersburg based Russian believer summed it up best:
“By Serving Kremlin rather than Christ, Moscow Patriarchate Now a Small National Church”
Ilya Zabezhinsky, an Orthodox commentator from the Northern capital, says that the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate by its promotion of the Kremlin’s agenda of “a Russian world” has failed in its Christian mission to the peoples of the former USSR and been reduced to a small national church of the Russian Federation.
Under Patriarch Kirill and President Vladimir Putin, the writer says, the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate has become “the ideological department of the powers that be of the Russian Federation and essentially ceased to be the Russian Orthodox Church. Instead, it is becoming the Church of the Russian Federation.”
Instead of reaching out to the faithful in Russia and in the former Soviet republics, Zabezhinsky says, Kirill and his subordinates have “kissed only one president … blessed only one army … prayed for only one Olympic team” and in general shown indifference to all the others.
Moreover, he continues, the Moscow Patriarchate has cursed liberals and the West as sources of evil and threats to Russian values, but what forces of evil are these? “In America, there are six million practicing Orthodox Christians, but among us there are no more than three or four million.”
No one in the Moscow Patriarchate should be surprised that all are running away from it, the Christian churches in the former Soviet space, the Russian believers who put Christ ahead of Putin, and all those who care about the rights and freedoms they should have as citizens of a modern country.
Our church, he says, has spent the last 20 years promoting things that have nothing to do with Christianity and not promoting the things that are at the core of the faith. Its members should not be surprised that others are running away from us, as the Ukrainian Orthodox now are, and that unless we change, others will do the same.
Today, Zabezhinsky says, “we are small little local church with a small flock, something that is not bad in principle.” Perhaps, he continues, it will lead us to give up our “earthly ambitions and remember Christ.” Our size puts us at a level with the Roman Catholics of Austria. That is something we must accept because it is the result of what we have done.
“We will be the Church of the Russian Federation. The rest do not want us. We ourselves are guilty that they don’t. Let’s leave the rest in peace. Let’s give up our protection from the government. Let’s sell our mitres …Let’s reduce the taxes on the bishoprics … Let’s make the texts of divine service more accessible.”
That is a worthy program for “the next candidate for Patriarch” in a church of our size and status, he concluded.
Source original Russian:
http://facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=2068798353179455&id=100001479301887
Source English translation: http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2018/09/by-serving-kremlin-rather-than-christ.html?m=1
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