Primate of the Autonomous Church of Estonia names two mistakes of Patriarch Kirill that make irreversible the process of granting the Tomos to Ukraine

Metropolitan Stefanos of Tallinn and All Estonia under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, issued a statement “On the Situation of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine”. In the document, the Metropolitan substantiated the need and the canonical right of Patriarch Bartholomew to make a decision to grant the Tomos to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and criticized Patriarch Kirill for yet another attempt to humiliate Constantinople and to bring schism to universal Orthodoxy.

“It is now no secret that the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople has decided to grant autocephaly to the Orthodox Christians of Ukraine (Synod of 20 April 2018). This decision is his exclusive responsibility (canons 9, 17 and 28 of the 4th Ecumenical Council). This decision was practically imposed by the situation that has developed in Ukraine for the past 25 years: the presence of the Church -- which is called “canonical” -- under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate and two jurisdictions -- called “schismatic” -- under the auspices of Patriarch Filaret and Metropolitan Macariy, thus challenging and subjecting to a hard trial the communion between all those who practice the Orthodox faith in this country. One should be blind or dangerously insensitive not to recognize that the violence and abuses that our Orthodox brothers and sisters in Ukraine undergo almost daily are neither acceptable nor tolerable, nor justified. “Patriarch Bartholomew, who enjoys primacy in universal Orthodoxy, can no longer afford to remain silent,” emphasizes Metropolitan Stefanos in his address.

The Metropolitan recalls that “de jure Kyivan Rus after the baptism of Prince Volodymyr of Kyiv in 988 was in the church jurisdiction of the Constantinople Patriarchate. In addition, Constantinople never recognized the annexation of the Kyiv Metropolis in 1686 by the Synod of the Russian Church after the invasion of the Russian Empire of the lands on the left bank Dnieper .... The anti-canonical annexation by the Russian Orthodox Church of the Ukrainian Church (1686), to which, unfortunately, the present annexation of the Crimea by Russia and the military occupation of Donbas are added, unfortunately, it turns against it today as a boomerang.”

Metropolitan Stefanos described the two main errors of Patriarch Kirill, “For two years, Patriarch Kirill has been making two major mistakes. First, his absence at the Holy and Great Pan-Orthodox Council on Crete (2016); secondly, breaking the communion with Patriarch Bartholomew again. Since 2004, the Russian Church continues to bully and humiliate Constantinople, continuously publicly denying the powers of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople with a clear purpose to become the third Rome? The fact of the non-recognition of Patriarch Bartholomew as “Protos (First),” through the refusal at the last moment to participate in the Council on Crete and through breaking the communion with him, already places Patriarch Kirill into a situation of split. How does a man with his mind and quality see and understand this?

And finally, a verdict from Metropolitan Stefanos, “Orthodox Ukraine will become autocephalous, it is obvious. The prophetic gesture of Bartholomew will be productive in the long run, especially as “she is his direct daughter, the living fruit of his missionary work and the place for future reconciliation with the Moscow Church.”