Photo: eurasia.expert
On Christmas Eve, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill gave an interview to Russia-1 TV channel, in which he stated that “new church” in Ukraine is a merger of two groups of schismatics, RIA Novosti informs.
"According to puppet masters and the Ukrainian president, this council was supposed to unite everyone and create a unified Orthodox church for the whole Ukraine. And what happened as a result? It is just two schismatic groups merged together," Patriarch Kirill thinks.
He also recalled that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church led by Metropolitan Onufriy of Kiev and all Ukraine, has been and remains a "blessed, spiritual centre" of Ukraine.
Patriarch Kirill called the creation of new structure a unprecedented interference in church’s affairs.
Note, on December 15, 2018 a “unification council” was held in Kiev on the initiative of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Constantinople Patriarch Bartholomew. It was attended mostly by the representatives of two non-canonical structures; “Kiev Patriarchate” and Ukrainian Autonomous Orthodox Church. Before that, on December 6, Patriarch Bartholomew handed over a tomos to the new church structure. The Russian Orthodox Church, the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church and most of the other Orthodox churches have refused to recognize the “new church”, considering it’s creation no-canonical. ROC also broke off contact with Constantinople Patriarchate and called the day when the tomos was signed a tragic one for the global Orthodoxy.
According to the opinion of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Ukrainian government interferes in church’s affairs, and nothing similar happened since the existence of the USSR. He also recalled that the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church in fact was independent of Moscow Patriarchate, and the two churches were connected spiritually. According to Russian President, the creation of new church was influenced by the USA, and everything that was happening after was aimed to separate Ukrainians and Russians.
Russkiy Mir
