“It’s hard to stay silent when you’re in pain”. By this quote from Cicero is guided metropolitan Isaiah of Tamassos (the Church of Cyprus). He gave a great interview for Romfea.
What was important:
Adventurous ideas about the concept of “Moscow – the third Rome”, which appeared in the West as early as the 15th century, automatically translates all religious contradictions into a geostrategic religious conflict, since in the West the MP is considered to be an instrument of the Russian diplomacy. The Moscow Patriarchate is accused today precisely because they are sure that Putin is trying to compete with the West in Orthodox countries through the MP. This is the realism of the modern geopolitical chessboard that churches are involved in.
The West imposes the Ecumenical Patriarchate as the world leader of all Orthodox Christians.
I object to Western politicians confusing history and theology with foreign policy, thus endangering Orthodox unity. There is no friendship in international diplomacy, there are interests. In the Church, the truth of The Word of God is always the same, regardless of whether it brings us into conflict with our national governments.
The West discriminates against and ignores the rights of 13 million Ukrainian Orthodox Christians who do not want to sever their ties with the Mother Church, the Russian Church. These 13 million people, some of whom witnessed atrocities against believers by the Soviet regime, today suffer from the atrocities of nationalists who want to force them to subjugate them.
Ethnophyletism, which we consider as a heresy, is actively promoted today for political purposes by non-church decision-making centers.
The primacy of the Ecumenical Patriarch, whom we all respect, is the primacy of service, not power. What we hear about “the first without equal” worries us. We hope that this is not a belief in power.
The Moscow Patriarchate has never posed a threat to Orthodox Churches. It was actually destroyed by the communists, gave the Orthodox world millions of saints, martyrs, ascetics, theologians. They were cut, trampled, they tried to wipe them off the face of the earth, but the Lord did not allow this.