Four Bishops of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus have angrily responded to the commemoration in the divine liturgy by Archbishop Chrysostom II of Epiphanios Dimenko, the “bishop” of the schismatic entity in Ukraine. The Archbishop’s commemoration of a man who has no priestly ordination or bishop’s consecration and is therefore not the head of an autocephalous Church is a serious violation of the canonical order of the Orthodox Church. This threatens to lead to a rupture of communion between the Orthodox Church of Cyprus and the Russian Orthodox Church of which the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church is an autonomous part of.
It is quite probable that the Archbishop has succumbed to pressure from the Ecumenical Patriarch and his powerful friends in the American government. The Members of the Holy Synod of the Church of Cyprus are rightfully furious with the Archbishop for making a decision that could destroy relations with the Russian Church and affect its relations with the rest of the Orthodox Church unilaterally.
Archbishop Chrysostomos II is only the latest Greek hierarch to disregard the holy and sacred canons of the Orthodox Church and to recognize the fake entity in Ukraine. Originally, the Bishops of the Church of Greece entered into communion with the fake “church” of Ukraine. Some of the Greek Monasteries on Mount Athos concelebrated the divine liturgy with some of the fake “bishops” of Ukraine. Like Patriarch Theodore of Alexandria, Archbishop Chrysostom had stated that he recognized only the canonical Ukrainian Church but then turned around and recognized the schismatics.
This action on the part of the Archbishop of Cyprus has now engulfed the last of the Greek speaking Churches in Orthodoxy. The Patriarchate of Jerusalem has refused to recognize the Ukrainian schismatics but while the Patriarch and most of his Bishops are Greek, the Patriarch’s flock is Arab. Jerusalem is therefore both an Arab and a Greek Church.
It cannot be stressed enough that Patriarch Bartholomew is provoking a schism in Orthodoxy that widens each time an autocephalous Church enters into communion with the schismatics. As all the Churches to have recognized the schismatics are Greek, this will leave the Greek Orthodox world estranged and cut off from the whole of Orthodoxy. Since the Ecumenical Patriarch invaded the Russian Church’s territory in Ukraine we have seen the following,
1) The persecution of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church by the Ukrainian authorities.
2) The cessation of communion between the Russian Church and the Churches of Constantinople and Alexandria.
3) The cessation of communion between the Russian Church and some Metropolises of the Church of Greece.
4) The division and estrangement between the upper ranks of the Patriarchate of Alexandria and the native African Bishops that resulted when African Bishops protested the Patriarch’s decision to establish communion with the Ukrainian schismatics.
5) A division within the Church of Greece between twelve principled Bishops who refuse to violate the canons of the Church, priests, monastics, theologians, and faithful on the one side and the Archbishop of Athens and a vast majority of Bishops on the other side who endorsed entering into communion with the Ukrainian schismatics.
At a time when Greece and Cyprus face increasing encroachments on their territorial rights from Turkey, this latest development in the two year crisis within the Orthodox Church is especially unwelcome. Over the past two years, Patriarch Bartholomew has sought to portray himself as a Greek nationalist. His infamous chauvinistic comments about the Russians needing to recognize “our people” at the head of Orthodoxy comes to mind.
Patriarch Bartholomew has failed to recognize the damage he has done to Orthodoxy. From the outset, the Ecumenical Patriarchate made itself an accomplice in the fierce persecution of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. By colluding with American officials in Washington and Athens to pressure the Church of Greece (and later the Patriarchate of Alexandria) to establish communion with schismatics, the Ecumenical Patriarchate made their synods complicit in the persecution of Ukrainian Orthodoxy.
In recent days, Russia has released statements supporting Greece’s territorial rights in the Aegean against Turkey. Russia has released a statement reminding Turkey of the Russian bombardment of the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Navarino in 1828. Very crucially, the Russian government has condemned the Turkish decision to reopen the town of Varosha in the Turkish occupied territories of Cyprus.
The decision of Archbishop Chrysostom to commemorate the fraudster Dimenko is despicable first and foremost for violating the canons of the Orthodox Church. It is also inherently stupid for alienating the Russians at a time when Russian diplomacy has been stepping up for Cyprus and Greece. The violation of canon laws by the Greek speaking Churches and the appalling treachery and cowardice by Greek hierarchs in four Churches demonstrate that the Greek Orthodox world has reached its greatest spiritual crisis in at least two centuries.
All this can be blamed on the Ecumenical Patriarch, the so called Greek “ethnarch”. Many Greeks scattered throughout the world have remained fervently loyal to Patriarch Bartholomew. This misguided loyalty has not been returned by the Ecumenical Patriarch.
If Patriarch Bartholomew cared for the Greeks and the Greek speaking Churches he would not have sought to divide them from their sister Churches in the communion of Orthodox Churches. Nor would he have destabilized them by creating one crisis after another in Greece, Alexandria, and now Cyprus. Greeks who continue to support Patriarch Bartholomew should ask one question.
If the Ecumenical Patriarch cared about Greece and Cyprus would he be creating divisions and conflicts not only between the Greek Churches and the Russian Church, but divisions among Greeks themselves?