Dear Brother Archons and Friends of the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate:

It is nothing short of scandalous that a month has now passed since the Russian Foreign Intelligence service (SVR) published a scathing attack on His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, deriding this holy man as “antichrist in a cassock” and “devil in the flesh.” Yet in the intervening weeks, Moscow Patriarch Kirill has not uttered a word to disavow or distance himself from this ugly and unwarranted verbal assault. The Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate denounce this fratricidal and practically schismatic act and call upon the Moscow Patriarch to affirm his allegiance to Orthodoxy rather than to Vladimir Putin’s government.

The SVR statement, which was published in Russian on January 12, 2026, accused His All-Holiness of having “dismembered Orthodox Ukraine” for ending the schism there and granting autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, and of a plan for “ousting Russian Orthodoxy from the territory of the Baltic states.” The SVR railed against the Ecumenical Patriarch in the most indecorous terms, referring to his “evil eye” and claiming that he is “mired in the mortal sin of schism.”

In response to this unseemly outpouring of hate, the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s response was loving and mature. On January 13, 2026, the Ecumenical Patriarchate issued an official statement (Greek language) expressing (Orthodox Times English excerpts) its “profound sorrow over the new Russian attack against the person of His Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.” It noted that “the fanciful scenarios, fake news, insults and fabricated information of all kinds of propagandists do not discourage the Ecumenical Patriarchate from continuing its ministry and ecumenical mission.”

Then on January 24, 2026, the newspaper Ta Nea Savvatokyriako published an interview (Greek language) with His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in which he was asked (Orthodox Times English language excerpts): “Your All-Holiness, are you worried about the Russian attacks on your person? Are you intimidated by everything that they say about you?”

His All-Holiness answered: “Intimidated? No, no! Russian propaganda does not intimidate me. I fear neither the false and fabricated information they disseminate, nor the dirty attacks orchestrated by various agencies, nor the slanders directed against our Patriarchate and my person, nor the Russian internet trolls, nor their mouthpiece websites.”

The Ecumenical Patriarch added: “Whatever they may do to obscure the truth, they cannot hide it; nor can they deceive everyone forever. I do not fear them. Rather, it is they who should fear the Day of Judgment, if indeed they believe. Among many other things, they will be held to account for the war in Ukraine, for having described it as “holy,” and for their attempts to fracture the unity of Orthodoxy by employing Stalinist propaganda tactics aimed at controlling, subjugating, and manipulating Orthodox peoples.”

His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, Exarch of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, sounded a prophetic warning for the Moscow Patriarchate, stating: “This is a very dangerous path. The Russian people are faithful. They don’t deserve such church leadership. They deserve a Church which is faithful and following the teachings of the Gospel, of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the traditions of the Orthodox Church.”

His Eminence also noted that “for those of us who really are familiar with Orthodoxy in Russia, we were not surprised by the recent statement of the Russian government against the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The church has always been a tool of the state. Even from the times of the Tsars.” He emphasized the spiritual danger of this course of action: “Unfortunately, an intelligence service is interfering with church affairs. We are not a secular organization. We are a spiritual organization, and no state can dictate to the Church what to do. We need to maintain the sacramental communion among us.”

The Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate are grateful to Almighty God for the opportunity to stand with our beloved Ecumenical Patriarch, who has shown yet again in this controversy that his primary concern is for the well-being of the Churches of God, as opposed to those who have allowed the Church to become a tool of the foreign policy agendas of an unscrupulous and imperialistic government. We pray and hope that the Moscow Patriarchate will eventually realize its error, denounce Russia’s unprovoked and unjustifiable war in Ukraine, end its one-sided schism with the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and return to its true mission rather than advancing Russia’s political aims.

Yours in the joyful service of our Holy Mother Church,