All bishops of the Church of Alexandria support the recognition of the OCU – Metropolitan Gregory of Cameroon

The head of this diocese is the pro-Russian hierarch of the Church of Greece, Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus, whose statements were recently replicated by all pro-Russian media. He stated that some bishops and a fairly large number of priests and believers of the Patriarchate of Alexandria were allegedly against the recognition of the OCU, the Spiritual Front of Ukraine reports.

As proof, Metropolitan Seraphim cited the words of Metropolitan Gregory of Cameroon of the Church of Alexandria, who said that one of the factors contributing to the creation of the so-called "Russian Exarchate in Africa" was the negative attitude of some metropolitans of the Patriarchate of Alexandria to the recognition of the OCU.

The position of Metropolitan Gregory of Cameroon is shared by ekklisiaonline.gr.

In response to all the reproaches, the hierarch asked Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus to apologize for the false words and said that all bishops of the Church of Alexandria recognize the OCU, which was confirmed at the last Synod of the Church of Alexandria in January 2022.

According to the report, this statement completely debunks the long-standing theses of Russian propaganda that were voiced in 2019, that Patriarch Theodore allegedly made the decision to recognize the OCU independently, and many, or even most, bishops support Moscow's position.

"The leaders of the Department of heresies and religions of the aforementioned Metropolia (Piraeus Metropolia of the Greek human rights center — Ed.) should really deal with the heresies and religions that operate in our country and stop insulting the Church of Constantinople in a custom manner, criticizing and condemning the decisions of Presbyterian Patriarchates. According to their well-known tactics, the members of this office take words and phrases out of context, distort them and interpret them according to their own logic, representing an inverted reality or, more commonly, white as black and day as night," Metropolitan Gregory said in a response letter.

"The references of my presentation to the hierarchy of the throne of Alexandria about the 'internal problem' and so on were caused by pro-Russian media reports that the Archbishops of the Patriarchate of Alexandria allegedly support the position of Russia, "the Metropolitan of Cameroon continues.

"At this Synod, there were no disagreements on the part of the Holy Archbishops on the issue of recognition of the Autocephalous Church of Ukraine by His Beatitude Pope and Patriarch Theodore of Alexandria, as well as on the decisions taken by the Synod on the issue of the invasion of the Russian Patriarchate on the canonical territories of the Patriarchate of Alexandria. The rest is a product of a sick imagination," said the hierarch of the Church of Alexandria.

"The positions of the old Patriarchate of Alexandria are expressed by its First Hierarch, His Beatitude the Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria, Mr. Theodore, and the competent Synodal authorities, rather than by analyzing supposedly 'approved and confirmed' blogs and obsessive brains."

"We call on the Reverend Metropolitan of Piraeus, who bears full and exclusive responsibility for what comes out of this office, to immediately recall the above-mentioned text, severely reproach its authors and apologize to the Apostolic See of St. Mark (The Church of Alexandria, — ed.), implied through this publication (meaning the publication of the Directorate for combating heresies of the Archdiocese of Piraeus, - ed.), as well as the obscenity to indicate to the second Patronal Patriarchate how to act and behave."

Earlier, Metropolitan Gregory compared the Russian Orthodox Church to the troops of German General Rommel, who was defeated in Africa. He also stressed that the Court of the Pentarchy can deprive the Russian Orthodox Church of the grace of all the sacraments.

Recall that on December 29, 2021, the Russian Orthodox Church announced the creation of the patriarchal Exarchate of Africa. The Synod's journals noted that this decision was made as a result of the “evasion of the schism” of Patriarch Theodore II of Alexandria. In 2019, he recognized the autocephaly of the OCU.

After that, according to the Russian Orthodox Church, some clergy of the Patriarchate of Alexandria, allegedly stating their disagreement with the position of the primate, appealed to Patriarch Kirill of Moscow with a request to accept them under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church. On December 29, 2021, hundreds of clergy of the Patriarchate of Alexandria from eight African countries were admitted to the Russian Orthodox Church.

The delegation of the Church of Alexandria handed over a letter to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, which referred to Moscow's invasion of the jurisdiction of the Patriarchal Throne of Alexandria in Africa and stated a request to assemble a pentarchy in this regard. The Patriarchate noted that Russia's creation of an “Exarchate” within the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Alexandria is uncanonical, and statements on this issue in favor of the Russian side were made by clergymen who either withdrew themselves or are of unknown origin, who consider themselves Orthodox, but never belonged to the Patriarchate of Alexandria.

The Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate at a meeting on January 11 expressed support for the Patriarchate of Alexandria.

The invasion of the Russian Orthodox Church on the African continent was condemned by the Primates of the Cypriot and Albanian Orthodox Churches. Archbishop Jerome of Athens also once again confirmed his unity with the Ecumenical Patriarchate in recognizing the Ukrainian Church.

In the period up to April 18, Constantinople will host the Synod of Primates of ancient Patriarchates, the so-called Court of the pentarchy, which will consider the issue of aggression of the Russian Orthodox Church against the Patriarchate of Alexandria.