The Moscow Patriarchate decried as “impossible” the prospect of the ROC autocephaly being recalled as punishment for creating a schism and launching an “ROC exarchate in Africa.” Recently, it is this very proposal that a hierarch of the Greek Church put forward – to deprive the ROC of autocephaly for five years.
“Of course, the very wording of the question is absurd: it is impossible to revoke anyone’s autocephaly. It is about the same as if some countries suddenly revoked Russia’s independence,” said Archpriest Igor Yakimchuk, secretary for inter-Orthodox ties at the Moscow Patriarchate’s External Church Relations Department, according to Russian media.
It should be recalled that the hierarch of the Greek Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Gregory of Peristeri, proposed that the Russian Orthodox Church be deprived of autocephaly for a five-years term as punishment for creating a schism and launching an “ROC exarchate in Africa” in the Patriarchate of Alexandria. He also proposes that Metropolitan Leonid (Gorbachev), whom the Synod of the ROC appointed “patriarchal exarch in Africa,” be stripped of his clerical position.
In an interview with Orthodox TV, Metropolitan Gregory described the creation of the ROC Exarchate in Africa as a divisive act. He believes that granting autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine was only a pretext, not a cause for the move.
Recently, Metropolitan Gregory of Peristeri noted that the actions of the Russian Church in Africa are a schism, not an invasion.
