Next Constantinople provocation forces the Russian Orthodox delegation to leave a Rhodes session of the inter-Orthodox commission

20 June 2008, 10:29

Moscow, June 20, Interfax - A new conflict is kindled between the Moscow and the Constantinople Patriarchates because of the latter's decision to invite representatives of its non-canonical church structure in Estonia in inter-Orthodox commission on Rhodes.

"Such manifestations of unilateral dictate from Constantinople representatives make it extremely difficult to find mutually satisfactory decision of the question on canonical settlement of the situation with Orthodoxy in Estonia," the statement of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations reads as published by the Russian Church's official website.

It further mentions that such actions "bear grave threat to real implementation of Orthodox unity which is one of the main tasks of the Russian Orthodox Church."

"Representatives of the Constantinople Patriarchate are fully responsible for such actions," the DECR stressed.

The Moscow Patriarchate delegation had to leave the commission's session on Thursday and informed that this case would be reported to the members of the Bishop's Council of the Russian Church which was to open on June 24.

The commission's session had to work out a draft message to the primates of the local Orthodox Churches. The document was to be adopted at the meeting of Orthodox leaders, which is expected to take place in October in Istanbul when the Constantinople Church will declare 2008 a year of St. Paul.

Earlier Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople invited Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia to participate in the autumn meeting. In his response of June 3, Patriarch Alexy expressed hope that when preparing the inter-Orthodox commission, Bartholomew would mind the resolution of the Russian Bishop's Council of 2000 saying that the Moscow Patriarchate's representatives could not participate in inter-Orthodox forums with representatives of the unrecognized Estonian autonomous Church (the Constantinople Patriarchate) as official delegates."

The letter went unanswered," the DECR noted.

The same Constantinople's provocation forced the Moscow Patriarchate delegation to leave a session of the Mixed Orthodox-Catholic Theological Commission in Ravenna in October 2007 as among its participants were representatives of the so-called "Estonian Orthodox Church" established in 1996 by the Constantinople Patriarch on canonical territory of the Russian Church.

SOURCE: