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Constantinople wants to demonstrate its own claims to power trying to give autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), said Metropolitan Hilarion, the head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate.
According to him, there is not only a territorial dispute between the two churches in Ukraine, TASS reports. The Patriarchate of Constantinople attempts to gain power and he does not hide it.
So, Constantinople does not consider other local churches as subjects of inter-church relations. The Patriarch of Constantinople for some reason is convinced that only he makes all decisions.
Constantinople is not going to discuss Ukrainian autocephaly either with any local church or with the ROC.
Metropolitan Hilarion explained that the Russian Church was not afraid to remain isolated. Constantinople acting contrary to the canon got out of it as well. The Patriarch of Constantinople takes the first place in the order of priests commemoration of the local churches during the service dating back to the 11th century. The Patriarch of Constantinople was the first among equal representatives of autocephalous churches. Only recently the Constantinople Patriarchs began to declare their special power in the Orthodox Church but these statements have no theological or canonical grounds, Metropolitan Hilarion explained.
Russkiy Mir
