The Department of External Church Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church, in response to a proposal by Metropolitan Gregory (Papathomas) of Peristeri to deprive the ROC of autocephaly and the grace of the sacraments, argues that the establishment of the African Exarchate is not a claim to “canonical” territories of the ancient Church of Alexandria but protection from “schism.”
The ROC is convinced that by splitting the Church of Alexandria and creating a parallel jurisdiction there, they are saving the faithful from “schism.” The schism, as per the ROC’s view, is the unanimous recognition by the Church of Alexandria of the OCU autocephaly.
“The purpose of the exarchate’s establishment is to give canonical protection to those Orthodox clergy of Africa who are not willing to participate in the unlawful legitimization of the schism in Ukraine (recognition by the Church of Alexandria of the OCU – ed.),” the ROC said in an official comment.
It should be recalled that Metropolitan Gregory of Peristeri (Greek Orthodox Church) recently accused the Moscow Patriarchate of an ecclesiological crime for invading the Patriarchate of Alexandria. “… early this year, we witnessed an ecclesiological ‘crime’: the creation of a Russian exarchate on the territory of the Chalcedon Patriarchate of Alexandria. This act of invading the territory of another Church, on the one hand, contradicts the two-thousand-year-old tradition of the Body of the Church, and on the other hand is a favorite tactic of the Crusaders of the 12th and 13th centuries. The Moscow Patriarchate, which receives its autocephaly from the Mother Church of Constantinople, is effectively abolishing the Patriarchate of Alexandria, claiming to become the Ecumenical Church, the Church of the Third Rome,” said Metropolitan Gregory.
“The tradition of the Church requires that the fifteen Churches that make up the Eastern Orthodox Church have clear boundaries, as well as a clear missionary duty within their territorial boundaries,” said the hierarch of the Greek Church.
Earlier, the Metropolitan of Peristeri said that the actions of the Russian Church constitute a schism, not an invasion. He added that the Council of Five Heads of Local Churches (Pentarchy Court) will soon convene, at which the heads of the Ecumenical, Alexandria, Antiochia, and Jerusalem Patriarchates, and the Church of Cyprus will condemn the schism the Russian Orthodox Church committed in Africa. The Metropolitan noted that condemnation of the ROC alone would not be enough and that for invading the African continent, the ROC should suffer a more severe punishment – “deprivation of communication (in the Eucharist, – ed.) and grace of all the sacraments.” In other words, the ROC may fall into isolation from the entire Orthodox world.
According to the theologian Romanos Anastasiadis, any dialogue with the ROC is in vain, just as the dialogue of the Holy Fathers with heresiarchs, who as a result received anathema from the Church, was also in vain.
Pro-Russian media are already speculating on the possible overthrow of Patriarch Kirill after the invasion of Africa. A meeting of the Pentarchy is to take place by April 18, at which the ROC clergy could be condemned.
The Patriarchate of Alexandria has already summoned two participants in the ROC’s schism in Africa to a church court: Andrei Novikov and Georgy Maximov. Patriarch Theodore of Alexandria said that Africa did not need defenders and self-proclaimed rescuers. In addition, the Church of Alexandria informed the Antiochia Church about the ROC invasion of Africa.
Earlier, Metropolitan Gregory of Cameroon said that all bishops of the Church of Alexandria support the recognition of the OCU. Also, only one of the 150 parishes whose abbots allegedly joined the ROC in Africa supported the Moscow Patriarchate.
