Constantinople Deepening Schism in Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate Source

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The recent joint statement of the Alexandrian and Polish Churches shows that the Constantinople Patriarchate’s moves regarding the process of granting autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine are only deepening the schism, a source in Russian Orthodox Church told Sputnik.

Last week, Patriarch Theodore II of Alexandria and Metropolitan Sawa of Warsaw called for preventing the threat of a conflict over the process of granting autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine initiated by the Constantinople Patriarchate.

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"The appearance of the statement of the two primates indicates that the situation related to the Ukrainian Church schism is deepening… [This appeal says that] non-canonical interference in the Ukrainian Church’s affairs does not bring closer, but rather delays the settlement of the schism," the source said.

In April, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople was launching the procedures required to establish the Autocephalous Church in Ukraine. The Russian Orthodox Church slammed the move, saying that the anti-canonical measures in Ukraine threatened to split the Orthodoxy.

On Sunday, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople said that he would soon grant autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine just as it had been earlier granted to the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia, adding that he was not afraid of threats. The Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia is the youngest of the autocephalous churches, with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople having decided that it should be granted such a status in 1998.