Epiphanius believes that the Greeks recognized their autocephaly
The unrecognized Orthodox Church of Ukraine, created in December of last year, believes that the recognition of its autocephalous status at the Council of Hierarchs of the Church of Greece took place according to all the rules, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
This opinion was expressed by the deputy head of the Department of External Church Relations of the OCU Evstratiy Zorya on his Facebook page.
“As I expected, the Russian side is trying to “informationally mitigate” the consequences for itself of the decision made by the Council of Hierarchs of the Church of Greece... Speculation has now begun around the fact that procedurally there was no voting at the Council, and therefore supposedly “no decision was made,” he wrote Zorya.
According to him, this particular order was chosen deliberately.
“Because the conclusions of the synodal committees, on which the Permanent Synod and the Council of Hierarchs subsequently rely, indicate that the right of the pan-Orthodox proclamation of autocephaly is the right of the Ecumenical Patriarch. Therefore, holding a vote on this matter in another Local Church would call into question such a right, and therefore all the autocephalies proclaimed by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, including the autocephaly of the Church of Greece itself,” he writes.
“Simply put, it would look just as unnatural if, after the election of a Primate in one Local Church or another Local Church, it would be decided by voting whether to accept this election,” Zorya believes.
He also stated that the Council specifically selected a committee headed by Metropolitan Hierotheos (Vlachos) to publicly present the position. “So, the statements he made after the Council on recognizing the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church are not just the opinion of an individual hierarch (like the thoughts of those who did not want to support the council’s decision and whose statements the Moscow side is now trying to rely on in its propaganda). Metropolitan Hierotheos announced the official position of the Council, and therefore the position of the Church of Greece,” noted Zorya.
Let us recall that the Council of Bishops of the Greek Orthodox Church recognized the right of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople to grant autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which has not yet been recognized by other Orthodox Churches. At the same time, the Greek Church itself did not accept any act recognizing the autocephaly of the OCU.
Epiphanius believes that the Greeks recognized their autocephaly.