|
News
|
 |
|
27 September 2018, 12:25Russian Church should not be afraid of isolation - Metropolitan Hilarion
Moscow, September 27, Interfax - The Moscow Patriarchate should not be afraid of isolation from other local Churches due to non-acceptance of the possible autocephaly of the Ukrainian schismatics, Metropolitan Hilarion, the head of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations, said.
"The Russian Church should not be afraid of isolation. If Constantinople continues its anti-canonical actions, it will put itself outside the canonical space, outside the understanding of the church system that characterizes the Orthodox Church," Metropolitan Hilarion said in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper published on Thursday.
He said he had recently talked with many heads of Orthodox Churches and can testify that the Orthodox world has a common understanding that the schism in Ukraine can only be overcome using canonical methods.
"The intention of the Constantinople Patriarchate to create an autocephalic church by uniting schismatics in one structure without repenting the sin of the schism, fully ignoring the canonical Church existing in Ukraine, contradicts canonical rules. It is not a method of healing the schism, it legalizes it," he said.
"All local Churches realize that legalization of the schism, if it happens, will not make it canonical and they will not enter communion with the structure composed of the schismatics," he said. |
