This piece is reprinted almost entirely from its original posting on orthochristian.com. We hope it offers a clear perspective that shared across the Orthodox Christian world regarding the recent moves by the Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, in regards to the legitimization of two canonically schismatic church communities in Ukraine.
The schism between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ecumenical Patriarchate became official today, October 15, 2018, as the Russian Holy Synod reviewed the recent granting of communion to two schismatic groups in Ukraine, pursuant to Constantinople’s intent to grant autocephaly (full self-rule, or independence) to the agglomeration of these groups.
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The biggest news in the Eastern Orthodox world in recent times occurred on Thursday, October 11, 2018. The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, lifted the anathemas against two schismatic Ukrainian Churches and their leaders, paving the way to the creation of a fully independent Ukrainian national Orthodox Church.
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This announcement was given in English and is shown here in video with the textual transcript following:
In part, this is because it involves matters of faith and church governance, the importance of which many people, especially some of a secular mind who scorn mere “religion,” tend to underestimate.
RT’s “Worlds Apart” interview program recently interviewed Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev), a hierarch who heads the Department of External Church Relations for the Moscow Patriarchate of the Orthodox Church. The Duran has covered the crisis in Ukraine surrounding the activity of the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew I, of Constantinople, intended to create a fully independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback has visited Ukraine. On Sept. 11 he was received by President Poroshenko. The ambassador seized the opportunity to offer assurances that Washington would continue to support the idea of an independent Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC), despite the fact that that institution is currently under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Moscow.
The press service of the Patriarch of All Russias announced that the first person in the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, will visit Istanbul on August 31, 2018, for a “very important talk” with his colleague, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
A high-level delegation of Metropolitans/Bishops from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has met in Constantinople, at the Phanar, to discuss the Ukrainian crisis, specifically, the major issues of the Church in Ukraine, with the Patriarch of Constantinople.
Moses saw and communed with a Personal God, not a created light and not a generic essence.
“When God was conversing with Moses, He did not say, “I am the essence”, but “I am the One Who is.” Thus it is not the One Who is who derives from the essence, but essence which derives from Him, for it is He who contains all being in Himself.” -St. Gregory Palamas, Triads in Defense of the Holy Hesychasts, III.ii.12
By: Jay Dyer
Russiagate is fundamentally about two things and neither have anything to do with anyone in the American elite actually believing that Russia had any impact on the US election whatsoever. Those who say that Russia had an influence on the US election are merely providing the bread and circuses to distract the attention of the wider world, including many in Russia from the actual motivation driving the seemingly never-ending scandal.
1. American Geo-political Decline
