UPDATE
Received response from Ekathemerini that they received letter and purpose of letter to show other side succeeded
The following is in response to the assertion that Russia and Turkey are uniting against the Ecumenical Patriarchate. I am a Greek Orthodox of the United States under the omophorion of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. I have long considered myself proud to be part of the flock of Constantinople but ceased to be so following the events of 2018 when the Ecumenical Patriarchate violated the canons of the Orthodox Church by intervening in the territory of the autocephalousRussian Orthodox Church.
The Ecumenical Patriarchate is considered to hold a “primacy of honor” among the world’s Orthodox Churches. The Patriarch is considered “first among equals” and is commemorated first by all the primates of the Orthodox Churches. The Ecumenical Patriarchate however has no authority or power outside of the various eparchies that it presently presides over in America, Australia, Canada, and parts of Greece. The Orthodox Church is conciliar and the only real binding authority emanates from the authority of an ecumenical council in which all autocephalous Churches participate.
In 2018, the Ecumenical Patriarchate intervened on the canonical territory of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is an autonomous part of the Russian Church. It has been part of the Russian Church since 1686 as can be proven by the Tomos then given to Ukraine by the Ecumenical Patriarch Dionysios IV. Furthermore, the canon laws of the Orthodox Church prohibit one autocephalous Church (regardless of honor) from intervening in the affairs of another.
The Ecumenical Patriarchate has committed an abundance of canonical violations which include an awkward attempt to restore bishops who had been properly deposed and anathematized by the Russian Church. These are all ecclesiastical matters grounded in canon law and Orthodox ecclesiology. Theologians, Church historians, and canonists from throughout the Orthodox world (including Greece and Cyprus) have made a solid case against Constantinople.
The Orthodox Church is founded by Christ and led by the savior alone. Secular governments have no business interfering in Church matters. The Church of Christ is not a political party nor a non governmental organization. It is not a tool to be used by secular American officials and secular journalists unfamiliar with the dogmas,theology, and ecclesiology of the Orthodox Church.
At the present time, there is a violent campaign directed against the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. This is the authentic Church because its bishops have valid consecrations and its priests have valid ordinations that can be traced to the apostles. This is in contrast to the fake bishops supported by Patriarch Bartholomew and the American State Department. The bishops in this so called “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” are either self ordained lay people or defrocked clerics from the canonical Ukrainian Church.
As a Greek American, I am more than aware of the delicate position of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople. As a writer, I have written extensively on the position of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and its brutal history during the twentieth century from the genocide of 1922 until the pogroms of 1955 and the more recent terror attacks against the Ecumenical Patriarchate by various Turkish ultranationalist groups. Despite my love for the Church and city of Constantinople, I stand in opposition to what Patriarch Bartholomew has done in Ukraine because it violates Orthodox ecclesiology.
There is an irony here that has been overlooked by everyone. American officials at the State Department hypocritically claim to champion the rights of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. There predecessors in 1955 not only ignored the horror of the anti Greek pogroms in Constantinople but they threatened to cut off aid to Greece when Athens protested the atrocities against the faithful of Constantinople. During the 1960’s when the ethnic Greek Orthodox of Constantinople and islands of Imbros and Tenedos were ethnically cleansed there was not a word of protest from the State Department or NATO.
That was the period when the Ecumenical Patriarchate lost most of its flock and why it is in the precarious state that it is in. The Church of Constantinople has remained alive since 1453 because it was secured by the power of Christ and remained a spiritual institution. Its politicization in the last several years by Washington for use in its anti Russian campaign is devastating the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The Church of Constantinople would stand stronger by remaining in good standing with the universal Orthodox Church than currying favor with the State Department.
It is a tragedy that so few are able to see the terrible situation that presently afflicts Orthodoxy. It is a tragedy that bishops in Constantinople, Alexandria, Greece, and Cyprus have come under the influence of secular governments. Russia presents no threat to the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The threat to the Ecumenical Patriarchate comes from those who are using it to foment anti Russian hysteria.
The consensus of opinion in Orthodoxy is that the Russian Church has grievances over what has transpired in Ukraine since 2018. Only the secular world believes that Constantinople is the victim in this entire situation. It pains me profoundly to speak against the Church of Constantinople but I follow the example of the Greek Orthodox faithful in history who rejected the iconoclasm of the Patriarch of Constantinople during the eighth century and the Greek speaking faithful of the holy city of Constantinople who in 1439 supported Saint Mark of Ephesus and rejected the Bishops who signed the Union of Florence.
There must be peace and reconciliation in the Orthodox Church. Only when the canonical situation in Ukraine has been restored will Orthodoxy be at peace. When Orthodoxy is at peace, then the Ecumenical Patriarchate might begin to repair the damage that has been done to its as a result of its uncanonical actions in Ukraine.
Above all, it should be remembered that the theological school of Halki remains closed. The Greek Orthodox world has suffered the loss of Hagia Sophia. The StateDepartment has taken no action to rectify these matters or to hold Turkey accountable, because its only concern is with provoking Russia. All Orthodox Greeks should join the rest of the Orthodox world in condemning the disruption of peace in the Church of Christ by secular political interests.
Thank you,
Theodore G. Karakostas