Ecumenical Patriarchate appoints Metropolitan Elpidoforos Lambriniadis as Head of Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America

The Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople has already appointed the former Metropolitan of Bursa, Elpidoforos Lambriniadis, as the head of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, the major and most influential See of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Andriy Yurash, the Head of Department for Religious Affairs and Nationalities at the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine wrote it on his Facebook page.

“This is a significant thing: Metropolitan Elpidophoros is one of the greatest friends of the Ukrainian Church, an ideologue who supported and asserted at all levels the right of Ukraine to its own autocephalous Church. Name but a few his last year's interviews, in which he completely denounced the Russian ideologemes and concepts that denied the independent path of Ukrainian Church and spiritual being! Incidentally, let us just remind: the American Department in the Ecumenical Patriarchate is the shortest way to the Patriarchal throne!

So let the Chairman of the DECR MP, Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeev, writhe in impotent rage, saying that the appointee is “the main hater of the Russian Church in the Ecumenical Patriarchate,” and that this appointment for a long time postpones the “restoration of unity”. There can be no unity with malice, falsehood and imperial zeal,” wrote Andriy Yurash.

As RISU reported earlier, Metropolitan Elpidophoros, member of the Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, repeatedly stated that the main reason why the Ukrainian Orthodox Churches could not unite lies in the aggressive policy that Russia is conducting towards Ukraine. The Metropolitan also emphasized that the Ukrainian Church is the Church Mother for the Russian Orthodox Church, and not vice versa, as the Russians believe and strive to impose this opinion on everyone.

“In the case of the Ukrainian Church, the statement by anyone that the Church of Moscow is the mother of the Church of Ukraine is at least paradoxical and distorted. In fact, it is quite the opposite. The Moscow Church is the daughter of the Ukrainian Church, which – the Ukrainian Church – is the daughter of the Ecumenical Patriarchate,” the Metropolitan said in an interview with the publication "Orthodoxy and the World.”