Archimandrite of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Romanos Anastasiadis, has commented on a recent interview with the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Porfirije, to the Russian Foreign Ministry magazine. Porfirije decried the autocephaly of the OCU as a “violation of canons.”
“I expected of the Serbian Patriarch at least some indignation, his reflections on the illegal and unlawful invasion of Africa by Muscovites to the detriment of the Patriarchate of Alexandria,” Romanos wrote in his blog.
“Instead, our Kremlin parrots are once again offering him a repeat of the same disgusting troubles of Russian propaganda against the Ecumenical Patriarchate concerning Ukrainian autocephaly. And who is talking? The Serb. He says ‘the Patriarchate of Constantinople ignored the Holy Canons, the Ecclesiology, the ancient order of the Orthodox Church, and the Holy Tradition!” Romanos wrote in outrage.
He noted that the Ecumenical Patriarchate has once given Serbs what they now have in Christianity, offering them autocephaly and patriarchal dignity. However, the Ecumenical Patriarch did not consult with anyone else, including an All-Orthodox Council, to ratify that. “But they are Serbs! And in their bottomless nationalist egoism, they believe that they are ‘entitled’ to what they have almost as… a natural right, a divine gift that is taken for granted!” Archimandrite Romanos Anastasiadis wrote.
“Meanwhile, others, in this case, Ukrainians, are inferior peoples in the view of the Serbian patriarch. They, I mean those who belong to the Autocephalous Church of Ukraine alone, who outnumber those in Serbia by four, have no right to the Autocephalous Church from the Ecumenical Patriarchate! As for the Patriarch of Serbia, they must be satisfied with the ‘autonomy’ that Moscow allegedly granted them,” the blog reads.
