The Russian Orthodox Church has reiterated its instruction to its priests to perform another baptism ceremony for children earlier baptized by priests of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
That’s according to Metropolitan Illarion (Alfeev), head of the external church relations department at the Moscow Patriarchate, who spoke with one of Russia’s propaganda outlets, branding the OCU a divisive organization and calling not to recognize its Sacraments.
“If it’s a church run by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, then, of course, children don’t need to be baptized again. If it’s a temple of a schismatic body, they need to be baptized again, because we do not recognize the sacraments of schismatics,” said the influential Russian bishop, writes Glavcom.
Thus, one of the key propagandists of the ROC reiterated that the Moscow Patriarchate could not accept the fact of the formation of the local Orthodox Church of Ukraine and multiple facts of believers and clergy of the ROC branch in Ukraine choosing to align with the OCU.
Traditionally, Moscow accuses the Ukrainian authorities, the United States, and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of these developments.
