14 September 2018 at an extraordinary meeting of the Holy Synod adopted a statement in connection with the illegal invasion of the Constantinople Patriarchate on the canonical territory of the Russian Orthodox Church, reports patriarhiei.
“Unilateral, anticanonical steps of the Throne of Constantinople on the territory of Ukraine, performed with complete disregard of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are the direct support of the Ukrainian division. Among the multimillion flock of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was extremely tempted by the fact that the Patriarchate of Constantinople, believing themselves the Mother Church for the Ukrainian Church, gives his daughter a stone instead of bread and a snake instead of a fish (LK. 11:11),” — said in a statement.
The document notes that “in a critical situation, when the Constantinople side practically refused to resolve the issue through dialogue,” the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church decided to suspend prayerful remembrance during the Liturgy Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and the concelebration with the hierarchs of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
“If you continue to anticanonically activities of the Patriarchate of Constantinople on the territory of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church we will be forced to break off the Eucharistic communion with the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The entire responsibility for the tragic consequences of this separation will fall personally on Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and the bishops who supported him”, — the statement stresses.
Aware that what is happening is a danger to the entire world of Orthodoxy, the Synod members asked for support to local Autocephalous Churches, calling on Church leaders to “feel the understanding of our common responsibility for the fate of the world Orthodoxy and to initiate fraternal pan-Orthodox discussion of the ecclesiastical situation in Ukraine.”