The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church met online today under the chairmanship of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia. The main item on the agenda was to consider how to respond to the recent decision of Archbishop Chrysostomos of Cyprus to recognize the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine.”
Noting that the Archbishop’s decision was unilateral, without the approval of the Cypriot Holy Synod, the Russian Synod resolved that Pat. Kirill can no longer commemorate Abp. Chrysostomos in the Divine services, reports the site of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Abp. Chrysostomos first commemorated Epiphany Dumenko, the head of the schismatic OCU on October 24, causing a great scandal in the Cypriot Church. The Russian Synod notes that, by his own admission, Abp. Chrysostomos had not informed the bishops of the Holy Synod of his decision.
The Synod also refers to the letter of the four Cypriot hierarchs—Metropolitans Athanasios of Limassol, Nikiforos of Kykkos, Isaiah of Tamassos, and Bishop Nicholas of Amathountos—in which they emphasize that Patriarch Bartholomew’s actions in Ukraine’s and Abp. Chrysostomos’ unilateral decision to recognize those actions are both gross, anti-canonical violations of the conciliar nature of the Church and of the ecclesiastical territory of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Synodal statement also makes reference to His Eminence Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, who reiterated his firm stance that the only canonical hierarch of Kiev is His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine.