Posted on 10/13/2019 1:59:58 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
An extraordinary meeting of the leadership of the Church of Greece decided on October 12 to recognize the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), making it the first of the Eastern Orthodox churches to take such a step.
The Orthodox Times said the Greeks' formal recognition will take place on October 19 in Thessaloniki, with Archbishop Ieronymos and the OCU's Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kyiv and All Ukraine present.
The Patriarchate of Constantinople, generally considered the spiritual headquarters for Orthodoxy, granted the Orthodox Church of Ukraine independence in January in a move that was adamantly resisted by Moscow and the Russian Orthodox Church.
But recognition has not followed from other Orthodox churches -- until now.
Supporters hope the Greek move could give impetus to other Orthodox churches that have been balking at such a step.
For years there were three main rival Orthodox churches in Ukraine, the Moscow Patriarchate being the largest among them.
Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula and the ongoing five-year war between Ukrainian government forces and Russia-backed separatists exacerbated tensions over that rivalry, with Ukraine's then-president, Petro Poroshenko, making independence for the Ukrainian national church a priority last year.
The Russian Orthodox Church has since cut off relations with the Constantinople Patriarchate since it delivered the so-called tomos of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
(Excerpt) Read more at rferl.org ...
*ping*
The rape of Orthodoxy continues.
Very awkward.
The Church of Greece is autocephalus (self-governing).
The Greek-Americans who belong to the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America are under the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
If there is deterioration between Constantinople and Moscow to the point of excommunication American Greeks would be forced to choose between their homeland church and their church in the New World.
Personally I think this move by the Church of Greece reduces the chances for excommunication.
Save Thy people, O Lord,
and bless Thine inheritance.
Grant victory to Thy Church over her enemies,
and protect Thy people by Thy Holy Cross!
I am not sure. More like the Greeks are begging for excommunication too.
The ROC and ROCOR hae broken communion with Constantinople and that includes the Greek Archdiocese here in N. America. I have little doubt that they will now break communion with Athens. It’s very possible that Belgrade will follow suit.
I fear that the fracture will fall along the lines of who did/did not attend the 2017 Council (or “meeting”) in Crete.
Churches that attended
Church of Constantinople (Ecumenical Patriarchate)
Church of Alexandria
Church of Jerusalem
Church of Serbia
Church of Romania
Church of Cyprus
Church of Greece
Church of Poland
Church of Albania
Church of Czech Lands and Slovakia
Churches that did not attend
Church of Antioch
The Antiochian Church pulled out due to the dispute over the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Qatar that is also claimed by the Patriarchate of Jerusalem.[31]
Church of Georgia
The Georgian Orthodox Church pulled out due to disagreements about several of the Synod’s documents, in particular “The Relation of the Orthodox Church with the Rest of the Christian World”.[
Orthodox Church in America
The Orthodox Church in America (OCA) was not invited due to the lack of recognition of her autocephaly by other autocephalous Churches.
Russian Church
The Russian Orthodox Church pulled out because of her belief that the council is not truly “pan-orthodox” without the Antiochan, Bulgarian, or Georgian churches.
Church of Bulgaria
The Bulgarian Orthodox Church pulled out due to disagreements on some of the texts already approved for the Synod meeting, and specifically that those texts would not be subject to editing in the course of discussions,
I really wish that just for once, somebody involved in this ecclesiastical cluster bleep would get their story straight the first time around.
http://orthochristian.com/124664.html
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