ROC Severed Ties With Constantinople

The corresponding decision was made at a meeting of the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church in Minsk.

The Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church decided to completely sever ties with the Patriarchate of Constantinople, Metropolitan Hilarion, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, said at a briefing after the Synod in Minsk, ВВС reports.

The ROC responded in that way to the decision of the synod of the Constantinople Patriarchate to provide autocephaly (independence) to the orthodox church, which will be established in Ukraine in the near future.

On October 11, the Constantinople Patriarchate lifted the anathema (excommunication) from the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate, Filaret, and canceled the document of the 17th century, according to which, as the Russian Orthodox Church puts it, the territory of present-day Ukraine was transferred to its jurisdiction.

It should be noted that the synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, now organized in Minsk, is illegal, since the 17th century document on the primacy of Moscow over the Kiev Metropolitan was canceled (then it included the territory of modern Belarus).

Thus, from the point of view of Constantinople, Minsk is already a territory, which doesn’t belong to Moscow. If the patriarchal charter of 1686 on the transfer of the Kiev Metropolitan to Moscow is canceled, then the cancellation also applies to Belarus. Then, in the 17th century, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Kiev Metropolitan included the Belarusian territory.

The meeting of the synod lasted more than six hours. It was held behind closed doors, and the press was waiting for a briefing in the street all that time. Starting at four o'clock in the evening, a man came out of the diocese building several times and announced that the briefing was being postponed. “For the ninth time I say: maximum alert,” – the representative of the diocese told the reporters, but the briefing did not begin.

We remind that in April of this year, two Ukrainian churches – the autocephalous church and the church of the Kyiv Patriarchate – appealed to the Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew, asking for independence.

This request was supported by the President and Parliament of Ukraine.

It is expected that the new church structure will include members of the two churches, as well as the hierarchs of the Moscow Patriarchate – a structural part of the Russian Orthodox Church, who would like to join it.

Earlier, Constantinople sent its two exarchs to Ukraine, they were to prepare a decision on the granting of autocephaly. After that, the ROC announced a partial break in relations with Constantinople.