The head of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for External Church Relations (DECR MP), Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev), acknowledged the Moscow Patriarchate's hand in the Patriarchate of Constantinople "interfering with the church life of Ukraine."
"I think part of the blame lies with us, and I have to admit that we made one huge mistake," the Metropolitan said in an interview published on December 14 by the Greek newspaper Kathimerini.
This was reported by Credo.press.
The permanent member of the Synod of the ROC MP explained that the autocephaly was discussed during the preparation of the All-Orthodox Council which took place in Crete in 2016, but "no agreement was reached on this topic."
"We have practically agreed that autocephaly will no longer be granted by the decision of the Ecumenical Patriarch alone and that granting autocephaly will be possible only with the consent of all Local Churches," Interfax (interfax.ru) quotes the Metropolitan. Patriarch Bartholomew sent letters to the Local Orthodox Churches with a proposal to remove the topic of autocephaly from the agenda and to hold an All-Orthodox Council. That was our great mistake. "
Metropolitan Hilarion noted that at the time (at a pre-conciliar meeting in Chambez) the Moscow Patriarchate "believed" Patriarch Bartholomew, who publicly said he recognized Metropolitan Onufriy as the only canonical head of Orthodoxy in Ukraine.
"These were his words, and we believed them. We thought: if the Ecumenical Patriarch says so, we should hold a Council as was promised to us, and continue to discuss the topic of autocephaly. It was our mistake for we shouldn't have believed him," the representative of the ROC MP admitted.