The Synod of Patriarchate of Constantinople has started the procedure to give the Kiev Metropolitan the so-called tomos — the right to autocephaly. The wording is exactly that, but President Poroshenko said autocephaly had already been received. The order that has existed 332 years is now broken.
On the reason why Istanbul is activating a detonator for heavy civil strife on the already torn Ukrainian land our special correspondent Anton Lyadov is reporting.
For three whole days, journalists waited from early morning until late evening for the Patriarchate of Constantinople to announce the grant of autocephaly to Ukraine, but as a result of the completion of the Holy Synod, such a decision was never announced. I'm holding the press release that was just given to all journalists. It says that the Patriarchate of Constantinople has decided to continue the process of granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian church. In addition, the Synod of Constantinople lifted the anathema from the heads of two non-canonical churches of Ukraine. They are Filaret of the Kiev Patriarchate and Macarius of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church.
At the same time, the Synod of Constantinople overturned the decision of 1686 on the transition of the Kiev Metropolis to the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate.
Emmanuel, Metropolitan of Galicia: "The Holy Synod discussed the issue of Ukraine in detail and decided to support the existing decision of the patriarch to continue the process of granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian church. Appeals by Filaret Denisenko and Macarius were given a hearing. It was decided that the anathema was announced for an insufficient number of reasons, for political reasons. Therefore, by the decision of the Synod, they were returned to the canonical field".
Despite the fact that a decision on granting autocephaly to Ukraine was not made, the statement of the representative of the Constantinople Patriarchate was greeted by Ukrainian journalists with ovations, shouts of “thank you”, and favorite slogans.
"Glory to Ukraine, Glory to the Heroes!"
The Russian Orthodox Church. also responded to the news.
Vladimir Legoyda, Moscow Patriarchate: "It's certainly an unprecedented non-canonical act. Not only is it an uncalled for intervention on the canonical territory of the Russian church, but it's also an attempt to undermine the entire canonical system of Orthodoxy. Otherwise, it is difficult to assess the proclaimed canonical unity with the schismatics and with the excommunicated man. The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church will decide on what we have heard today at its next meeting on October 15th."
A final decision was never made. The Ukrainian question will be discussed again here in a month.
Anton Lyadov, Igor Nikulin, Alexey Yaldin, Aytaj Dzharchieva, Vesti, Istanbul.
