"Kiev Patriarchate" not allowed to celebrate in Jerusalem

Moscow, March 11, (Interfax) – The Russian Orthodox Church has refuted that a cleric of the self-proclaimed Kiev Patriarchate conducted the divine service in a Jerusalem Orthodox church.

Earlier, the web-site of the "Kiev Patriarchate" Volyn Diocese claimed that Jerusalem Orthodox hierarchs permitted schismatic "Bishop" Mikhail of Lutsk and Volyn to celebrate the divine liturgy in their church during his pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

"The press-service of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations is authorized to deny the truth of the publication," a statement on the Moscow Patriarchate official website reads.

The document mentioned that secretary general of the Jerusalem Patriarchate's Holy Synod Archbishop Aristarchos of Constantine said "Bishop" Mikhail didn't ask him for a permission to celebrate a divine service in Orthodox churches.

"The reported schismatic liturgy is falsification. Even if they did something in the Orthodox church, it was done under false pretence," the statement said.

Archbishop Aristarchos also said all Jerusalem Orthodox clerics were informed that the "Kiev Patriarchate" representatives should not be allowed to conduct divine services as the Jerusalem Patriarchate recognizes "the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate as the only canonical Church in Ukraine," the document stressed.

Comments

  1. AnonymousMarch 11, 2008 at 12:29 PM

    Once these nationalism-driven breakway churches are recognized as autonomous, and their existence becomes a fait accompli, this is all going to seem rather foolish.

    Though I have a Sebrian Orthodox aquaintance who swears up and down the Macedonian Orthodox are totally without grace and well outside of Orthodoxy as they went independent from the Serbian Church.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Byzantine, TXMarch 11, 2008 at 12:38 PM

    The Serbians are hard-line all around. And I work with a Macedonian Orthodox that would firmly disagree of course. :) Do we want this sort of devolution of the Churches? Do we think it will make East-West discussions easier or harder?

    ReplyDelete

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