“We very much regret that the Ecumenical Patriarch personally, and the Ecumenical Patriarchate as a whole, has done, in my opinion, and the opinion of the majority of our theologians, the biggest mistake in the entire history of the Ecumenical throne” – this was stated by the Bishop Novosadski and Metropolitan Irinej, a spokesman of the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church in a live TV program “the Archbishop,” reports outreach Department of the UOC.
Reverend Bishop noted that earlier in a personal communication, warned Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople to interfere in Ukrainian Orthodoxy, “because it will cause a huge tragedy.”
“Unfortunately, he took this step, he continued, the Serbian Bishop. It’s hard to tell some of the reasons. Some believe that it is resentment against the Patriarch of Moscow and the Russian Church because of the lack of the Cretan Church. But many think that it is the pressure of the West”.
As explained by the Bishop, the act of the Patriarchate of Constantinople may be part of the General political course directed outside.
The invasion of the canonical territory of the existing Autonomous Church of Ukraine is, according to the press-secretry Synod of the SPC “completely non-canonical,” or mildly “canonically unfounded” decision.
One of the reasons that Bishop Irenaeus sees in the negotiations of Constantinople with exclusively secular leaders and politicians. “The course is quite strange, – said the Bishop. – Think only that the delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarch on this issue not only communicates with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church which is the Church of most people, she’s not even visited even once Metropolitan Onufriy. All negotiations either with politicians or with the dissenters”.