Moscow walks out on Constantinople

[Peter_J]

Moscow walks out on Constantinople

NEW CONFRONTATION BETWEEN MOSCOW AND CONSTANTINOPLE PATRIARCHATES
Portal-credo.ru, 19 June 2008

A new conflict has flared up between the Moscow and Constantinople patriarchates because of a decision by the latter to invite representatives of the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox church for participation in the work of the Inter-Orthodox Commission on the island of Rhodes; RPTsMP has again pronounced the Estonian church “uncanonical,” ten years after a peaceful division of its parishes in Estonia.

“Such manifestations of unilateral diktats on the part of representatives of the Constantinople patriarchate make it extremely difficult to find a mutually satisfactory resolution of the question of a canonical rectification of the state of Orthodoxy in Estonia,” Interfax-religiia quotes a statement from the Communications Service of OVTsSMP.

In addition, the document notes, such actions convey “a serious threat to the realistic achievement of Orthodoxy unity, whose strengthening is one of the most important concerns of the Russian Orthodox church.” “Responsibility for such actions lies fully on representatives of the Constantinople patriarchate,” the OVTsSMP said.

The delegation of the Moscow patriarchate duly left the session of the commission being held on Rhodes on 19 June, saying that a report about the situation that arose will be made to members of the Bishops’ Council of RPTsMP that will begin on 24 June.

The goal of the commission’s session is to prepare a draft of a letter to representatives of official local Orthodox churches. Adoption of the document itself is scheduled for the time of a meeting of Orthodox leaders which is expected to occur in October in Istanbul and will coincide with the current “year of the apostle Paul” to be declared by the Constantinople church.

The Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew invited Patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus Alexis II to participate in the fall meeting. In response to a letter of 3 June Patriarch Alexis expressed the hope that Patriarch Bartholomew will keep in mind the resolution of the Bishops’ Council of RPTsMP of 2000 which speaks of the impossibility of representatives of the Moscow patriarchate participating in inter-Orthodox forums where representatives of the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox church participate in the capacity of official delegates.

Previously, in October 2007, a delegation of the Moscow patriarchate left a session of the Joint Orthodox-Catholic Theological Commission in Ravenna, where representatives of the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox church also participated. (tr. by PDS, posted 19 June 2008)

stetson.edu/~psteeves/relnews/0806c.html#18

 

[Peter_J]

I hope I won’t sound triumphalistic by saying this, but lately it seems that between the Pope and the Patriarch of Constantinople, the Pope is the one who is more considerate toward the MP.

 

[Muzhik]

I hope I won’t sound triumphalistic by saying this, but lately it seems that between the Pope and the Patriarch of Constantinople, the Pope is the one who is more considerate toward the MP.

I wouldn’t go that far. Pope Benedict has been following through on efforts to strengthen and improve ties with the Orthodox world. The Vatican has been making more attempts to open dialogs with each of the Orthodox Patriarchates, including the Moscow Patriarchate. This is simply another example of the MP’s stand of “everything or nothing” – there can be no true Christian worship in Russia if it is not within the Moscow Patriarchate. The reason there have been so many meetings between the Vatican and Moscow is that Moscow is actively trying to suppress the Roman Catholic Church in Russia. There are significant numbers of Roman Catholics in Eastern Siberia, where Poles and Baltic Catholics were sent to work in the gulags during and after WW2. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Rome has been sending priests and bishops there to minister to them; however, in recent years Moscow has done things like revoking the visas of bishops so they cannot return.

In this case, there was an Estonian Orthodox Church before WW2 that was recognized by Constantinople and Moscow. After WW2 when the Russians occupied Estonia, the original Orthodox Church was dissolved and a new one was created as a branch of the Russian Orthodox Church. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Orthodox Church in Estonia was re-constituted and recognized by Constantinople as the legal successor to the pre-WW2 church. However, Moscow did not recognize this church, saying that there was already a perfectly good Orthodox Church in Estonia (that owed its allegiance to Moscow), where was no need to cloud the issue, and this was all part of a plot by Constantinople to grab territory that belongs to Moscow.

So Moscow is separating itself from any event that also includes the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox church. If people want Moscow, they’re going to have to dis-invite the Estonians. In this way, they are establishing themselves as the pre-eminent Orthodox Church in the world – an honor that has been held by Constantinople.

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[Milliardo]

Well said, Muzhik, and I couldn’t add more to what you already stated.