Due to the approval of the Bucha massacre in particular and the killing of Ukrainians by the Russian military in general, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine put forward an initiative to recognize the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, as a heretic, but this has not happened yet.
OCU Metropolitan Oleksandr (Drabynko) of Pereyaslav and Vishnevsky touched upon the issue in an interview with Telegraf.
According to him, this issue was raised a long time ago in connection with Kirill’s intervention in the affairs of the canonical territory of the Alexandria Patriarchate, where the Russian Orthodox Church opened its exarchate.
“In addition, patriarch Kirill’s blessing of murder is also a mortal sin, as well as of the ideology of the Russian world, which justifies the ethnocide of the Ukrainian people,” the metropolitan explained.
He said that the trial of the Pentarchy – ancient patriarchates whose status was certified by the Ecumenical Councils – was to take place. The Pentarchy includes the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Churches of Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Cyprus.
“But there is a problem with the Antioch church: there is a very strong influence of Moscow business plus the conflict in Syria. The Jerusalem Church also has many issues with Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church. And in order to conduct a trial, consensus is needed, which is why there was none,” Bishop Oleksandr concluded.
