Posted on 09/19/2018 7:05:15 AM PDT by marshmallow
Moscow, September 14, Interfax - Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople will no longer be mentioned in prayers after the Divine Liturgy, the Russian Synod has decided at an emergency meeting.
"In the critical situation where Constantinople practically refuses to resolve the issue through dialogue, Moscow Patriarchate is forced to suspend prayer mentioning of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople after religious service and with deep regret suspends joint service with Patriarchate of Constantinople hierarchs," the Synod, which met in Moscow on Friday, said in a statement.
In addition, the Russian Church suspends its participation in episcopal assemblies and theological dialogues, multilateral commissions and all other bodies chaired or co-chaired by the Constantinople representatives," Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Synodal department of external church relations, said after the meeting.
That does not mean no more Eucharistic communication: believers of either patriarchate can still receive communion from the same chalice, the hierarch said.
However, if Constantinople continues anti-canonical activities on the grounds of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the Moscow Patriarchate will have to "cut all Eucharistic communication with Constantinople" and the full responsibility for the tragic consequences of this divide will lie "personally on Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and the archbishops who support him," Metropolitan Hilarion said.
According to the Moscow Synod, the current situation around Ukraine poses "a danger for the whole global Orthodoxy," to avoid which all local Orthodox churches must "initiate a fraternal pan-Orthodox discussion of the church situation in Ukraine," Metropolitan Hilarion said.
Is it just me, or do all of the articles related to this situation require speaking a 2nd and possibly 3rd language to make any sense of what’s being said?
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