Hierarch of Serbian Church calls on Patriarch Bartholomew to restore “status quo” in Ukrainian church issue

The hierarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Irinej of Bačka, called on Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople to restore the “status quo” in the Ukrainian church crisis. The bishop is convinced that the head of Phanar must admit the mistake he made by recognizing the OCU and return the situation to the state it was in before 2019, when the Ukrainian schism was granted the Tomos of autocephaly. Metropolitan Irinej believes that in this way Patriarch Bartholomew will be able to restore his shaken authority and prevent a global split in world Orthodoxy. He said this in an interview with the PECHAT publication, according to the press service of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

“I believe that if His Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch spoke on behalf of the Great Church of Christ in Constantinople with a statement that the leaders of the Ukrainian schism and the highest representatives of the Ukrainian authorities misled him, or rather, grossly deceived him, claiming that everything or almost everything in Ukraine from the canonical Metropolitan Onufriy to citizens Denisenko (self-styled “Patriarch Filaret of Kyiv”), Dumenko (self-styled “Metropolitan Epiphany”) and Maletich (self-styled “Metropolitan Makariy”), can’t wait for the “unification council” in Kyiv and the creation of the “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” (OCU), this ecclesiomorphic “centaur” or “tragelaphos” (mythological monster, half-goat, half-antler), and then annul this forcefully bound construction, ensuring the restoration of the church status quo ante and solving the problem through a dialogue between the unrepentant Ukrainian schismatics and their “patrons” with the Russian Orthodox Church, i.e. the canonical Church in Ukraine, as well as a dialogue at the pan-Orthodox level, “This would not only prevent a new split — worse than the one that already exists between the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches — but would also restore the Patriarchate of Constantinople its former reputation and trust, and would bring Patriarch Bartholomew himself to the court of history as a great and wise Patriarch,” — Metropolitan Irinej argues.

The bishop is convinced that further persistence of Patriarch Bartholomew in the Ukrainian church crisis will inevitably lead to a full-fledged split in Orthodoxy, which can only be compared to the Great Schism of 1054.

“Further persistence in preserving the existing canonical disorder would have, I am sure, unforeseen catastrophic consequences — a long-lasting split, and even perhaps a new millennium of schism, this time not between the Christian East and the Christian West, but within the Orthodox East. This split would cause irreparable damage to the mission and witness of Orthodoxy in the world, giving rise to a major ecclesiological heresy. God save us from this! To avoid such a development, we should pray a lot and diligently, working on it with all our might,” — the Metropolitan added.

Earlier, Metropolitan Irinej of Bačka commented on the situation with the Ukrainian church crisis and the reaction of the Local Orthodox Churches to it. The bishop claims that the churches that recognized the OCU did so under pressure and often contrary to the canons and their own charters.