“Patriarchate” of Moscow Breaks Communion with the Ecumenical “Patriarchate”

“Patriarchate” of Moscow Breaks Communion with the Ecumenical “Patriarchate

In a boundary and authority fight, the “Patriarchate” of Moscow broke communion with the Ecumenical “Patriarchate”.
Trouble started between the two “churches” when the Ecumenical “Patriarchate” suddenly remembered it could give autocephaly to a Ukrainian “Patriarchate” that was considered by all “World Orthodox” as schismatic up until recently. 
The “Patriarchate” of Moscow had on May 27,

1992

had condemned the then Metropolitan Filaret Denysenko for separating from the Moscow Patriarchate he belonged to as a

hierarch

and eventually claiming to be the “Patriarch of the Ukraine“.  At that time, the “Ecumenical Patriarchate” had agreed to this condemnation of “Patriarch” Filaret.  Twenty-six years later, the “Ecumenical Patriarchate” has now decided to recognize “Patriarch” Filaret.

According to the Synod of the “Patriarchate” of Moscow, on August 26, 1992, “Patriarch” Bartholomew responded to a letter of the late “Patriarch” of Moscow Alexei emphasizing that he agreed with the condemnation of Metropolitan Filaret Denysenko.  Again in 1997, in another letter to “Patriarch” Alexei, the “Ecumenical Patriarch” Bartholomew informs the former that he desires no kind of ecclesiastical communion with the schismatics of

the Ukraine

 (i.e. “Patriarch” Filaret and his followers).

In this meeting of the “Patriarchate” of Moscow of October 15th, which was held for the first time in Minsk, Belarus,”Patriarchate” of Moscow severs  all communion with the Ecumenical “Patriarchate” forbidding its clergy from serving with the clergy of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and forbidding its laity to attend services of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

The ecumenist “Patriarch” of Serbia, “Patriarch” Irenaeus commented on these events saying, “At this moment the Church is in a great temptation!  A temptation that has tempted our first hierarch, the Patriarch of Constantinople, to make a decision that is catastrophic for the Church.  To do what he has no right to do and that is to recognize a schismatic church and to give it autocephaly.  This is totally unheard of!”