The numbers here are small but it points to a larger battle for the most powerful voice in Orthodoxy.
Moscow - April 16, (Interfax) – The Holy Synod of the Russian Church roundly condemned the decision taken by the Constantinople Patriarch to include the People’s Republic of China in his Hong Kong Metropolia.
The Synod session held on Tuesday in Moscow said the Constantinople decision of January 9 “encroach upon the rights of the Chinese Autonomous Orthodox Church.”
“This decision was taken unilaterally, unknown to the Orthodox believers in China,” the participants stressed.
They also stated that “decision of the Constantinople See is unjust and canonically unjustified as damaging peace and well-being of the holy Churches of God.”
Hierarchs pointed out to the centuries-old spiritual links between the Russian Church and China “where it has worked to build dozens of Orthodox churches, to translate holy and liturgical books in Chinese, to bring up in Orthodox piety witnesses to our Lord Jesus Christ who were faithful even unto death.”
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