The Orthodox Church of Ukraine has called on Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and heads of autocephalous churches to condemn the spiritual crimes committed by the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill Gundyaev, and strip him of his position.
Metropolitan Epiphanius of Kyiv and All Ukraine, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, made this statement on Facebook May 26, Ukrinform reports.
“We must understand that every day of our lives, no matter where we are in Ukraine, costs us dearly. Our defenders are now fighting for it at the front, and we all have a duty to fight for freedom, for truth, for liberty – everyone in their place, where we are, and through the ministry to which we are called,” he stressed.
According to Epiphanius, one of the main directions of this fight is “opposing the ideology of the ‘Russian world,’ this fascist, murderous doctrine, wrapped in a shiny cloth of sermons by Kirill Gundyaev and his allies.”
Thus, the Council of Bishops, which recently took place at St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, condemned this “ideology, which is spread through the Moscow Patriarchate as a heretical doctrine of ethnophyletism, that is, the division of church on national grounds, that are put above all,” Metropolitan Epiphanius of Kyiv and All Ukraine said.
“It is no secret that Patriarch Kirill is one of the creators of the ‘Russian world’ ideology, its propagandist and promoter. The ideology itself, in my opinion, falls under the condemnation of ethnophyletism as a heresy by the Council of Constantinople in 1872. Accordingly, Kirill Gundyaev, as a co-creator and propagandist of the ‘Russian world,’ should be condemned if he does not renounce this heresy and show the fruits of repentance,” Epiphanius said.
In this regard, the Metropolitan appealed to the heads of other local churches to “condemn from the fullness of Orthodoxy the words and actions of Moscow Patriarch Kirill, who supports from the pulpit the bloody war against Ukraine. As the one whose hands are drenched in blood of the victims of the Russian army, which he, the Russian patriarch, blessed for this massacre, cannot hold a Eucharistic chalice and a pastoral scepter.”
That is why, according Metropolitan Epiphanius, the Council of Bishops of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine appealed to the Ecumenical Patriarch and heads of local autocephalous churches to condemn Kirill’s spiritual crimes and deprive him of his throne, in particular based on promoting ethnophyletic ideas of the “Russian world” and sowing schisms among Christians (unjustified rupture of Eucharistic unity and creation of dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church within the Patriarchate of Alexandria).
“May God bless everyone for making just decisions, and may he give Ukraine victory over the aggressor and long-awaited peace,” Metropolitan Epiphanius added.
As Ukrinform reported in early May, during a patriarchal sermon at the Arkhangelsk Cathedral in the Kremlin, Moscow, Russian Patriarch Kirill claimed that “Russia has never attacked anyone.”
At the same time, Pope Francis told the Italian daily Corriera della Sera that during a recent video call, Kirill was trying to justify Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine in the first 20 minutes (out of 40 minutes of the entire call), while “holding a map.”
