Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk, head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate (DECR MP), predicts that Belarus will have an "inspired church schism" similar to the Ukrainian one.
This is reported by Credo.Press portal.
"The idea of autocephaly does not find any support among the church people, in the hierarchy, in the clergy. But, of course, those forces that are interested in undermining the political situation, having seen what happened in Ukraine, and realizing that the church factor can play an important role in this, will be interested in promoting the idea of Belarusian autocephaly," Hilarion said on a Russian TV channel.
Earlier, Alexander Lukashenko, during a meeting with the clergy of the BOC MP in the Zhirovychi monastery, expressed the desire of "opponents of the Belarusian State" (by which he understands his regime) to declare the autocephaly of the Belarusian Church.
He also said that he instructed the speaker of the Upper House of the Belarusian Parliament Natalia Kochanova to contact the state, the country's leadership and the Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus, Metropolitan Veniamin (Tupeko) of Minsk and Zaslavl of the Russian Orthodox Church "to follow up on this issue."