The Church of Greece opened proceedings against two metropolitans who took a negative position on the OCU

07.07.2021, 15:43

The committee on doctrinal and canonical issues of the Synod of the Church of Greece opened proceedings against two Metropolitans - Cosmas of Aetolia and Acarnania and Seraphim of Kityr and Antikytir. Among other things, they are accused of "disrespecting the church authorities" because of their negative position on the recognition of the OCU, as by doing so they "undermine the unity of the Greek church with the Ecumenical Patriarchate on Orthodox issues and call into question its canonical (Ukrainian) privileges."

It was reported by religious scholar Andriy Yurash with reference to the official resources of the Church of Greece.

According to him, this fact entails the following conclusions:
1. The position of the Church of Greece on the issue of recognition of the OCU is not only not subject to revision, but also takes on unambiguously clear outlines: canonical sanctions will be applied to those who question a positive decision on this issue.
2. The recognition of the right of the Patriarchate of Constantinople to grant autocephaly is confirmed at the doctrinal and dogmatic level.
3. There is no real and powerful opposition to the decision taken back in 2019 to recognize the autocephaly of the OCU among the Church of Greece: 2 hierarchs out of more than 100 bishops of this church are not even an alternative minority opinion, but the position of a complete and hopeless margin-less than 2%.

Tags: #Andriy Yurash #Greek Orthodox Church