The Russian Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow has cut ties with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, claiming his recognition of an independent Orthodox Church in Ukraine departed from Orthodox Christian norms, the National Catholic Register website reports today (October 16, 2018).
Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, who heads the foreign relations for the Russian Orthodox Church, and Russian Orthodox leaders decided to "break the Eucharistic communion" in response to actions it called "lawless and canonically void."
"The Russian Orthodox Church doesn't recognize those decisions and won't fulfill them," Archbishop Hilarion said in Belarus after a meeting of the synod of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Patriarch Bartholomew's plan to create a single, self-governing Church in Ukraine, led by its own patriarch, is motivated by a desire to unify the country's 30 million Orthodox Christians, theologians say. The Russian Orthodox Church sees the move as an infringement of its jurisdiction and authority.
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