Irinej Bulovic (Center)
Bishop Irinej of Novi Sad and Backa Irinej Bulovic warned the actions of by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew and Greek Archbishop Ieronymos will reate new divisions in the Orthodox World.
“This act is the final step before the abyss of an even deeper and more dangerous schism in ecclesiastical Orthodoxy,” Irinej said on October 20 commenting on their recent mentioning the head of the non-canonical Orthodox Church of Ukraine in a service.
On October 19, Patriarch Bartholomew and Archbishop Ieronymos held a joint church service in Thessaloniki, Greece. During it, they commemorated the name of the head of the non-canonical Ukrainian church, Epiphanius.
The Serbian and the Russian Orthodox Churches and many other local Orthodox Churches strongly condemned Constantinople for granting an ‘autocephaly’ to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which was created from local non-canonical entities. The only canonical Orthodox Church that operates in Ukraine is the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate).
Recently, the Ecumenical Patriarch achieved a tactical success in Greece by forcing the leadership of the Greek Orthodox Church to accept its ‘right’ to grant the autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. However, this move caused a significant resistance within the Greek Orthodox Church itself. For example, the head of the Osiou Gregoriou monastery in the monastic state of Mount Athos in Greece warned that the current situation over the Ukraine question is leading to the devisions within the Orthodox World.
Therefore, actions of Constantinople are in fact aimed at undermining the Orthodox unity and discrediting the Orthodox Church as a religious system.
Southfront keeps on posting these articles on this orthodox issue, and its readers just keep on don’t give a damn. There’s almost no reactions with these articles. No wonder really, most readers are from the West, and our own christian religion is all but dead there, let alone do most of us even know jack shit about the orthodox faith. To us its just a bunch of old geezers with black robes and funky hats.
Disappointing comment.
Hey, at least I finally got some people to comment in these articles.
There is nothing to comment, the issue is very sensitive and even painful. The last step is to accuse Patriarch Bartholomew of heresy, but God knows what will be the effects on that, no matter who will do it (even if it won’t be the first time in history, other famous examples exists, unfortunately). Russian Orthodox Church took a very smart stance in this matter and announced they will remove from the communion only the bishops guilty of breaking the canons and not the entire Greek Church. Until now, there are only two, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens.
You don’t have to read those articles. But you have to respect the religion of others. Keep those bullshit comments to yourself, thank you !
Personally, I’d like to thank South front for this article.
Hope you are well Stephan
very well thank you.
First of all, thank you Southfront for this series of articles about Orthodox issues in Ukraine – which keep making waves around the entire Orthodox World. Even if people outside of the Orthodox faith cannot fully understand the stakes in place. Second, I would like to draw a larger picture for people like @disqus_xcnpHsz9Xh:disqus who live in West, their Christian faith (what’s left of it after 1054) is dead, and don’t seem to understand how important spiritual life is – the real distinction between humans and animals. The war in Syria now, like the war in Yugoslavia/Serbia in 1999 or the war in Irak are the visible part of the unseen war, which is raged totally, every second of our life between the Light and the dark, who’s stakes are our souls. Very few people know that before the Syrian war starts, 25% of the population was Christian, from which 90% was Orthodox. Now less than 10% left. Irak had a Christian – mainly Orthodox – large minority as well – above 10%. Actual numbers are unknown. I spoke first about Syria and Irak because these lands hold the birth of Christianity. Today, Christianity is erased from it’s place of birth and from other places, as @Barba_Papa noticed. I would like to remember that the war against Serbia was a war against Orthodoxia, because otherwise how was possible that 300 monasteries and churches to be leveled down and Kosovo to be made a present to the Albanian muslims? People who don’t know what Kosovo means for Serbians should search and learn. Greece was under a different war, but the forces who acted there where the same. Russia is under huge pressure. Ukraine is used to split the Orthodox faith. Romania and Bulgaria are basically colonies for Germany, France and US, stripped of all their resources. These are the main Orthodox countries left. @Barba_Papa and co., you are watching very closely the war in Syria, but the war on your soul might be lost if you don’t pay attention.