The Moscow Patriarchate has grown accustomed to breaking church canons. At the same time, the ROC constantly accuses other Churches of doing just the same.
Religious expert Oleksandr Yefremenko pointed this out in his latest blog, adding that these efforts look “rather comical, or even absurd.”
Commenting on the interview of ROC Metropolitan Antoniy (Pakanych) where he said everything should be “decided based on Orthodox canons,” in particular the issue of Ukrainian autocephaly, Yefremenko recalled that the formation of the ROC Exarchate in Africa took place “contrary to the same non-Orthodox canons, which the ROC is trying to unlawfully and inappropriately apply to the Ecumenical Patriarchate!”
“So how is a representative of a religious organization that knowingly and intentionally violated the sacred canons going to negotiate with others, pointing to their mistakes? As it is written in the Scriptures, ‘by your words you will be condemned’ (Matthew 12:37),” the expert emphasized.
Yefremenko recalled that for the ROC, breaking canons is common practice, while they stress that for others, it’s a mortal sin and a terrible crime that can’t be washed away “even with martyr’s blood,” as the Moscow Patriarchate often says.
“Pride and arrogance have blinded the mental and physical eyes of Pakanych and his fellows so much that they are no longer able to tell white from black. Because, in their opinion, by violating the canons, they care for the Church and its faithful. However, if another Local Church acts for the same purpose, but contrary to Moscow’s position, the latter calls it heresy. However, perhaps it’s the Russian hierarchs who commit heresy? The words of the Lord come to my mind again, which have become a well-known aphorism: ‘Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?’ (Matthew 7: 3)” Oleksandr Yefremenko concluded.
