Archimandrite Romanos Anastasiades of the Ecumenical Patriarchate commented on the adjournment of the Bishops’ Council of the Russian Orthodox Church to next year.
According to him, the Russian Orthodox Church did not find support from the Church of Antioch, which became obvious after the statement by the Synod of the Patriarchate of Antioch. There are also disagreements and divisions within the Russian Orthodox Church, in particular, Metropolitan John (Renneto), who was admitted to the Russian Orthodox Church, wants to join the Assembly of Orthodox Bishops of France under the Metropolitan of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
Grossly violating the Charter of the Russian Church, which requires convening a Council of Bishops no earlier than once every 4 years (the previous one was at the end of 2017), Kirill — an extraordinary web-conference of the Synod-postponed to May next year the Council of Bishops, which was originally scheduled for November of this year...", Father Romanos stated in his post.
"There are many reasons for this. Of course, the message of the recent synod of the Patriarchate of Antioch — which clearly showed that it does not want actions that will deepen and end the existing schisms in Orthodoxy — but also the inability to find "willing partners" for the second Amman, after a disgusting failure on the first attempt.", explains Archimandrite Romanos.
He added that more and more information is being received about internal problems that cause headaches for Moscow.
"The problems created by the actions of the former (Archbishop – Ed.) of Hariopol and the current Dubno John, after his decision to accept into the Moscow – controlled Paris Exarchate clergy and parishes that were separated from ROCOR and on which ROCOR imposed fines or even deductions," the Archimandrite notes.
In addition, according to Father Romanos, ROCOR sued Moscow that until this issue is resolved, it will not participate in the Council of Bishops of the Russian Church. It is reported that he wants to return to the Assembly of Orthodox bishops of France under the Metropolitan of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to show that he is supposedly independent of Moscow," the cleric of the Ecumenical Patriarchate writes.
"In the circus of Muscovites, we will see many more interesting "numbers", the Archimandrite predicts.