Antioch Patriarchate requests meeting of Primates to discuss Ukraine issue

Following a similar move by the Church of Poland, the Patriarchate of Antioch has today called upon the Ecumenical Patriarchate to immediately convene a synaxis of the Primates in order for church leaders to discuss recent developments in the Orthodox world and in particular, the issue of autocephaly concerning the Church of Ukraine, ORTHODOXIA.INFO reports.

According to the official communiqué issued earlier today by the Holy Synod of the Antioch Patriarchate, “[A]ny approach for granting the autocephaly of a certain church has to be in accordance with the Orthodox ecclesiology and the principles agreed upon by the Churches in a conciliar way in the past years. These principles for granting autocephaly are about the necessity to obtain the agreement of the Mother Church and the acknowledgement of all the Orthodox Autocephalous Churches.”

The document also states that, “[T]he Church of Antioch refuses the principle of establishing parallel jurisdictions within the canonical boundaries of the Patriarchates and the Autocephalous Churches, as a way to solve conflicts, or as a de facto situation in the Orthodox World.”

Furthermore, “[R]esorting to a unilateral reading of history does not serve Orthodox unity. It rather contributes to the fueling of the dissentions and quarrels within the one Church.”