Metropolitan Hilarion: The Archbishop of Cyprus may

cease to be commemorated in the Russian Orthodox

Church
15:06 10.24.2020 (updated: 15:16 10.24.2020)© RIA Novosti / Gennady Melnik

MOSCOW, October 24 - RIA Novosti. The head of the Cypriot Orthodox Church, Archbishop
Chrysostom, first mentioned the Ukrainian religious leader Epiphanius (Dumenko) as the primate of
the Ukrainian church, according to the media, de facto recognizing the schismatic structure he leads
- the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk told RIA Novosti about the
possible reaction of the Russian Orthodox Church to the recognition of the OCU by the Church of
Cyprus.
- Your Eminence, how will the Russian Church react to the recognition of Ukrainian
schismatics by the Cyprus Archbishop?
“We deeply regret this unfortunate event. The decision will be made by the Holy Synod. However, I
believe that the Archbishop of Cyprus will be deleted from the diptychs of the Russian Orthodox
Church, that is, his commemoration during the service will be terminated until all the circumstances
of the incident are clarified. This means the end of the Eucharistic communion with a specific person,
not with the Cyprus Church as such. It will be important to understand: did he do it alone or with the
consent of the Synod? The Greek media write that he did it without the consent of the Synod.
- Under what circumstances did this commemoration take place?
- They write that the Archbishop, together with the Paphos Metropolitan, ordained Bishop Pankratius
of Arsinois, who was elected by the Synod to the post of Vicar Bishop of the Paphos
Metropolitanate. Several other bishops of the Church of Cyprus were present (but did not
serve). Some of them left the church when they heard the name of the leader of the Ukrainian
schismatics from the mouth of the Archbishop.
- How do you explain such a decision of the archbishop?
It's not a secret for anyone that he was under pressure from the Patriarch of Constantinople, who is
very interested in having at least one more Church recognize his lawless act. There was pressure
from the United States, where they are interested in weakening the Russian Church and in opposing
the Greek world to the Slavic world.
- Could the recent visit of the Patriarch of Alexandria to Cyprus have influenced the
Archbishop of Cyprus? After all, he, too, made a decision to commemorate Epiphanius
alone, without the sanction of his Synod.
- This cannot be ruled out.
- The Cypriot archbishop has previously spoken unfriendly towards the Russian Church and
the Moscow Patriarch. For example, in one interview he recounted his conversation with
Patriarch Kirill: "He wants to be the first. I told him that you will never be the first. Over the
past 17 centuries, the Patriarch of Constantinople has been recognized as the first among all
Orthodox primates. You must understand this." ... How can you comment on this?
- Can you imagine that such a conversation actually took place? I was present at all the meetings
between Patriarch Kirill and Archbishop Chrysostomos, and he never said anything like that. Such
a conversation could only take place in the imagination of the archbishop, because, firstly, he would
never have said this to the Moscow Patriarch's face, even if he thought so to himself, and secondly,
the Russian Church never claimed to be the leader in the Orthodox world ... We have an official
document "The position of the Moscow Patriarchate on the issue of primacy in the Ecumenical
Church", adopted by the Holy Synod in 2013. There it is written in black and white that since the XI
century "
- What will be the consequences of this decision for the relationship between the Russian
and Cypriot Orthodox Churches?
- We will continue to communicate with all bishops who do not recognize the sole decision of the
archbishop. The Russian people have always been close to the Cypriot people, our pilgrims will
continue to visit the shrines of those metropolitanates of the Cyprus Church, whose heads will
remain in communion with the Russian Church.
- But above all for us is the unity of our Church and the firm preservation of the dogmatic teaching
and canonical tradition of Holy Orthodoxy. The fact that individual hierarchs and even primates of
Churches violate the canons makes us sad. But we cannot and will not sacrifice Orthodoxy and
canons. And we will firmly preserve the unity of our Church.

Πηγή: https://ria.ru/20201024/kipr-1581338998.html