The Constantinople Patriarchate discredits Orthodoxy before non-Orthodox world, the Russian Church Abroad believes

19 June 2008, 10:34

Moscow, June 19, Interfax - The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad severely criticized the Constantinople Patriarchate.

"It seems to me that here (in relations with the Moscow Patriarchate - IF) Constantinople leads a kind of fight that is unhealthy and contradicts the spirit of Orthodoxy. They discredit Orthodoxy before non-Orthodox world. No one profits from it. They do it for their own reasons," Archbishop Mark of Berlin and Germany said in his interview published by the NG-Religii paper.

He believes that a Pan-Orthodox Congress should have discussed Constantinople's juridical claims.

"We have to clear out if Constantinople has any special rights in the Church, what are the bases for its claims to govern over the entire Orthodox diaspora and play the role of "the Eastern Pope" in Orthodox world," the foreign hierarch said.

He also called it "an outrage upon justice" that Constantinople decided to welcome under its jurisdiction former head of the Sourozh Diocese of the Moscow Patriarchate in Great Britain Bishop Basil (Osborne).

Commenting on actions of certain Constantinople representatives who back up Ukrainian schismatics, Archbishop Mark said that "even if one doesn't understand anything in church politics, it's easy to come to the conclusion: a race for power is underway."

The archbishop stated that the Church Abroad, both in Western Europe and America, lived in peace with Constantinople and expressed hope that this tendency would be preserved.

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