Metropolitan Epifaniy’s non-commemoration of Patriarch Kirill at liturgy means several things, theologian explains

Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kyiv and All Ukraine during the First Liturgy in the status of the Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in the St. Michael's Cathedral commemorated all the Primates of the Orthodox Churches, except for Patriarch Kirill of Moscow.

Theologian Ilya Bey commented on the actions of the newly elected Primate for RISU.

“Non-commemoration of the Patriarch of Moscow during the Liturgy by Metropolitan Epifaniy means several things at once, but this non-commemoration must be understood in its context.

Nowadays, almost all the Primates commemorate each other. There are only two exceptions: 1) the Patriarch of Moscow ignores the Patriarch of Constantinople; 2) Metropolitan of Kyiv does not commemorate the Patriarch of Moscow.

What is the problem? In the first case, everything is clear. Moscow was offended that Constantinople has coped with the issue that the Kremlin was delaying since 1991. In the second case, there is no formal canonical foundation, since the head of the Mother Church, Patriarch Bartholomew, continues to remember his Moscow counterpart.

I think that Metropolitan Epifaniy was guided by the following considerations:

1) he should not remember the one who has stopped remembering the Primate of the Mother Church;

2) From inside Ukraine, it is easier to see the true essence of the Moscow Patriarchate. From being a Church, it turned into a state body in the matters of ideology. The spirit of Christian freedom has disappeared from there a long time ago, and this organization itself must be called as it is: “Muscovite”, not Orthodox. Only external decor remained of its Orthodoxy. The officers of the intelligence service are called “metropolitans” and “archbishops”, instead of ordinary “generals” and "”colonels”. The rest of the Local Churches are unaware of this unfortunate fact to date.