Media: Synod of Greek Church not to discuss “Ukrainian issue”

The Holy Synod of the Greek Church. Photo: Romfea

From October 8 to 11, 2019, a regular meeting of the Holy Synod of the Greek Orthodox Church chaired by Archbishop Jerome of Athens and All Greece will take place, reports "Romfea".

According to the exclusive information of the edition, the hierarchs do not intend to discuss the church situation in Ukraine.

A number of domestic issues are proposed for discussion: low birth rates in the country, unemployment among young people, inability to create new families, problems of single-parent families, the creation of same-sex couples.

The place of digital technologies in society, the mission of the Church and the challenges of artificial intelligence, as well as personnel issues, are also on the agenda.

According to the deputy head of the Department for External Church Relations of the UOC, Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich, the members of the Holy Synod of the Greek Church made a wise and quite understandable decision.

"It is right. The overwhelming majority of Greek hierarchs are against the recognition of the OCU. Individual members are not so much for the recognition, as for supporting the Phanar somehow. Thus, this issue may trigger a division within the Greek Orthodox Church. Archbishop Jerome understands this,” Archpriest Nikolai noted on Facebook. “Indeed, why help the Phanar resolve the problems, which it itself created, at the cost of creating problems in their own Church? Thus, even the Greek Church, on which the enemies of the unity of the Church of Christ places their hopes, does not recognize the schism, that is the OCU.”

As the UOJ reported, earlier during the meeting of the head of the ROC DECR, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) with Archbishop Jerome and members of the Holy Synod of the Greek Church, the issue of Ukrainian “autocephaly” was discussed. The media reported that "an exchange of views on these issues took place in a brotherly atmosphere, during which both sides stressed the importance of the unity of the Orthodox Church."

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