Russian Orthodox Church vows breakup with Constantinople if Ukrainian Orthodox autonomy is granted

Unian ^ | Sep 2018

[CondoleezzaProtege]

The Russian Orthodox Church threatened to break off relations with Orthodox Christianity's leading body - the Patriarchate of Constantinople - if it endorses the new self-governing, or autocephalous, Ukrainian Church.

In an interview in Moscow on Saturday, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for External Church Relations, said that the Russian Orthodox Church wil sever ties with Constantinople if a decision is made there to grant autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate, according to TASS. "The Russian Orthodox Church will not accept this decision," the cleric said.

As UNIAN reported earlier, the Ecumenical Patriarchate has appointed two Exarchs in Kyiv as part of preparations for granting autocephaly to Ukraine's Orthodox church. Further measures, such as the adoption of documents at the Synod, are expected to be taken in October.

[vladimir998]

Uh oh! The girls are going to have a tiff!

[Cronos]

One of the few drawbacks of the Orthodox church is the tendency to Caesaropapism - the tying of the church to the nation too tightly. It has its advantages as well, but sometimes can be a crutch.