Wednesday, March 12, 2008

The Moscow Patriarchate denies Ukrainian schismatic in celebrating divine liturgy in Jerusalem church

11 March 2008, 11:02

Moscow, March 11, Interfax – The Russian Orthodox Church has refuted that a cleric of the self-proclaimed Kiev Patriarchate conducted the divine service in a Jerusalem Orthodox church.

Earlier, the web-site of the "Kiev Patriarchate" Volyn Diocese claimed that Jerusalem Orthodox hierarchs permitted schismatic "Bishop" Mikhail of Lutsk and Volyn to celebrate the divine liturgy in their church during his pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

"The press-service of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations is authorized to deny the truth of the publication," a statement on the Moscow Patriarchate official website reads.

The document mentioned that secretary general of the Jerusalem Patriarchate's Holy Synod Archbishop Aristarchos of Constantine said "Bishop" Mikhail didn't ask him for a permission to celebrate a divine service in Orthodox churches.

"The reported schismatic liturgy is falsification. Even if they did something in the Orthodox church, it was done under false pretence," the statement said.

Archbishop Aristarchos also said all Jerusalem Orthodox clerics were informed that the "Kiev Patriarchate" representatives should not be allowed to conduct divine services as the Jerusalem Patriarchate recognizes "the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate as the only canonical Church in Ukraine," the document stressed.

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