The Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate (AEP) has called upon the Patriarchate of Moscow and His Beatitude Patriarch Kirill to end their support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, as well as to cease all uncanonical interference in other territories that lay outside of Moscow’s patriarchal jurisdiction.
A Feb. 2024 report from the Reuters Institute noted that “the extent of the involvement of the Church and its Patriarch in Russia’s wartime propaganda machinery has been more flagrant than even the most jaded observer might have predicted.” Reuters Institute added that the Moscow Patriarchate justifies the war on the basis of the Russkiy Mir (Russian world) concept, explaining: “The Russkiy Mir concept transcends geographical boundaries, encompassing not just Russia but all territories associated with historical Russian influence, including Ukraine. By framing the conflict in Ukraine as a battle for the soul of the Russian civilisation, Kirill has effectively sanctified the war, granting it a veneer of divine legitimacy.”
In stark contrast, in May 2022, His All-Holiness sharply criticized Kirill’s stance, saying: “It would not be possible for all the Churches not to condemn the violence, the war. But the Church of Russia let us down. I did not want the Church of Russia and Brother Patriarch Kirill to be this tragic exception.” With his never-failing pastoral sensibility, His All-Holiness added: “I don’t know how he can justify himself to his conscience. How he’ll justify it, how history will judge him. He had to stand up for himself. Because one can object to being pressured by President Putin. He should react to the invasion of Ukraine and condemn the war as all the other Orthodox Primates did. He did not, that is to his detriment and I am very sorry.”
His All-Holiness called upon Patriarch Kirill to renounce his throne, if necessary, and have the courage to face Vladimir Putin’s wrath in order to stand for justice and truth: “We may have had other differences, the one known for the Autocephaly of the Church of Ukraine, the one we have had for centuries because the Russian Church covets the primacy of Constantinople, and undermines the foundations of the throne of Constantinople, but I expected brother Kirill at this critical, historic moment to rise to the occasion. If it is required to even sacrifice his throne, and tell Putin, Mr. President, I cannot agree with you, I resign, I leave. Or put him in jail, I don’t know what President Putin would do if the Patriarch reacted to his plans, but that is what we, the other Primates, would expect.”
This prophetic call from His All-Holiness took on a new urgency in early Jan. 2025, when the United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights claimed that the government of Ukraine had inadequate grounds for the banning of religious organizations affiliated with the Russian Federation. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry responded: “We reject the UN’s conclusions on amendments to the Law of Ukraine on Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Sphere of Activities of Religious Organizations as the ones distorting reality.”
Ukrinform, the Ukrainian National News Agency, explained: “The ministry emphasized that the law mentioned in the report does lay down a ban on any of the churches existing in Ukraine. It only does not allow the subordination of religious organizations in Ukraine to the decision-making centers located in a state that has committed or is committing armed aggression against Ukraine and/or temporarily occupied part of its territory, as well as religious organizations that support armed aggression against Ukraine.”
The Moscow Patriarchate’s approval of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine is just one aspect of that Patriarchate’s actions against other Orthodox jurisdictions. His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, Exarch of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, pointed out in Oct. 2022 that the Moscow Patriarchate “is supporting full-on aggression and violence against the Ukrainian People, as well as the illegal seizure of Ukrainian lands by sham elections at gunpoint,” and also “has uncanonically invaded the Continent of Africa, which is the complete ecclesiastical domain of the Most Holy Patriarchate of Alexandria.”
Archon Evagelos Sotiropoulos reported in Feb. 2022 that “on December 29, 2021, Moscow’s ruling synod adopted a resolution establishing an exarchate in Africa on what is the undisputed canonical territory of the Ancient Patriarchate of Alexandria.”
His Eminence Metropolitan George of Guinea in Mar. 2024 decried “the illegal presence of the Russian Church, which is trying to sabotage our work. But we are here and we continue our struggle and our work. The Russian Church is an instrument of its country’s policy. It is a pillar of Russian soft power. We see that since Russia can no longer export culture or sports, it is trying to export religion. And it has found the weak link, us, who are in a foreign country, to wage war. We hope to overcome this and see the serious problems that our society needs to solve.”
In Oct. 2022, His Beatitude Theodore II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa and recipient of the 2022 Athenagoras Human Rights Award, briefed U.S. President Joe Biden, himself the recipient of the Athenagoras Human Rights Award in 2015, on Russia’s uncanonical intrusion into Africa. His Beatitude stated: “I had the opportunity to discuss not only the invasion of Ukraine, but the ‘invasion’ by another Church of my own Patriarchate.”
The Moscow Patriarchate is also interfering in Korea. In May 2024, His Eminence Metropolitan Ambrosios of Korea and Exarch of Japan noted that the “Moscow Patriarchate’s illegal expansionist policy in the Orthodox Metropolis of Korea and Exarchate of Japan is of profound concern to the Ecumenical Patriarchate and Orthodox Christians worldwide.”
The Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate echo these concerns and once again call upon the Moscow Patriarchate to end its aggression and uncanonical activities, for the sake of the unity of the Holy Orthodox Church and the well-being of Orthodox Christians worldwide.
