ORTHODOX COLD WAR: Constantinople and Moscow

 


PROLOGUE

There has been a long-standing dispute between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Moscow Patriarchate. In our own time, this dispute reached its peak following the granting of autocephaly to the Church of Ukraine by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 2019.
As a result, many of our fellow Christians, brothers and sisters in the Lord, have been scandalized.
Let us look at this issue more closely.

 

    PROLOGUE

    INTRODUCTION
    1. Beware of the Half-Truth 
    2. Advantage as Liability        

    SECTION I
    1. Is there a First among Equals?    
    2. Primacy of Honor and Authority 
    3. The Phanar and the Right of Appeal 
      
     
    SECTION II
    1. Autocephaly in the church 
    2. The Pre-jurisdictional Right 
    3. Outside Jurisdiction? 
    4. Discussion on Autocephaly 
    5. Letter from Bartholomew 
     
    SECTION III 
    1. Phanar and Russia
    2. Russia is Proclaimed a Patriarchate 
    3. Movements that Wound 
     
    SECTION IV
    1. Kyiv 
    2. Permission to Ordain 
    3. "An Aggreement" 
    4. New Data  
     
    SECTION V
    1. A Historical Decision 
    2. The Schisms in Ukraine 
    3. Seeking a Solution      
    4. When Circumstances Change       
    5. Autocephalous Ukraine       
    6. The Breaking of Communion 
       
     
    SECTION VI 
    1. The Bulgarian Issue 
    2. Excerpts from the Response
    3. Resolving the Bulgarian Issue 
    4. The Use of Oiconomia
    5. The clergy Is not the church
         
     
    SECTION VII 
    1. Epistle to Moscow's Patriarch 
    2. Epistle to the Tsars 

 

4. The use of Oiconomia (SECTION VI )

 Of the fifteen Orthodox Local Churches, only four (Constantinople, Alexandria, Cyprus and Greece) recognize the autocephaly of Ukraine. However, the “Ukrainian question” could be resolved in the same manner in which the Bulgarian question was resolved; that is, autocephaly could be recognized by way of oiconomia.
The exercise of oiconomia is, after all, fully in keeping with the spirit and pastoral tradition of our Church. Indicatively. For the sake of the Church’s unity, the ancient Patriarchates of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem recognized by way of oiconomia the replacement of the Patriarchate of Moscow with a small synod instituted by Tsar Peter the Great.67 This unprecedented innovation is in no way comparable to the autocephaly of Ukraine.
Additional examples.  

Moscow itself, making use of oiconomia, received into communion (March 9, 1946) the Uniate clergy of Ukraine without re-ordination. Likewise, Moscow received into communion (May 17, 2007) the schismatic body known as ROCOR (the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia).
In the United States there are hundreds of thousands of Orthodox Christians (some estimate their number to be as high as approximately ten million). According to the 34th Canon of the Holy Apostles, there should be one Primate for all Orthodox Christians in that country. However, there are (approximately) ten Primates, one for each nationality. No Orthodox Church protests this uncanonical situation. It is accepted by way of oiconomia, for the sake of peace within the Church. And there are many other similar cases.
Why, then, should the autocephaly of Ukraine not also be recognized by way of oiconomia? Why should the schism and division within the Church of Ukraine continue?
Why should the wound in the Body of Christ persist? 

In an interview given on Christmas Day 2023 (new calendar, January 7, 2024), His Beatitude Patriarch Cyril of Moscow described the granting of autocephaly to the Church of Ukraine as “a great sin of Bartholomew.” Yet we must bear in mind that the only Judge is the Lord. He will judge whether Bartholomew committed a great sin. He will judge whether Cyril of Moscow handled the matter rightly.
He will judge Metropolitan Onuphrius as to whether he acted correctly in refusing to participate in the Council of Kyiv (December 15, 2018). And He will judge every primate who did not do what was necessary to bring peace to the Church of Ukraine.
Wise and virtuous Archimandrite Ioel Giannakopoulos (Greece) was entrusted with speaking at the ninth-day memorial service (1961) of Metropolitan Chrysostomos I of Messenia. Father Ioel dared to say:
“Brothers! Where is the bishop now? Before Christ! And what did Christ say to him as soon as He saw him?
‘Here, I am the Shepherd! Cast away your staff, remove your mitre, remove your mantle, remove your pectoral crosses; stand naked before Me and give an account…!’” If the judgment of God does not move us, then we, as shepherds, are dangerous to the salvation of the people.  

  

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