The Churcher Telegram channel writes about the details of the organization of the last trip of Eustratius Zory to the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

“As stated, the reason for the trip of Archbishop Eustratius to Istanbul was the enthronement of Metropolitan Emmanuel Adamakis to the See of Chalcedon, the second most important in the Patriarchate of Constantinople. It is said that for this, Metropolitan Epiphanius sent a letter to Patriarch Bartholomew at the beginning of March, which was not made public and which almost no one saw.

In this letter, Epiphanius asked permission to send a delegation headed by Vladyka Eustratius: since there was no official invitation, Patriarch Bartholomew expected no one. According to our source, the Primate simply begged (and it worked!) To admit his bishop to the common ministry with Bartholomew (after all, there were cases when our bishops in Istanbul were politely refused this, or had to serve separately). And, of course, in his letter, Metropolitan Epiphanius highly appreciated the activities and authority of Metropolitan Emmanuel in Ukraine.

The fact is that the text of the letter immediately in Greek was “presented” to Epiphanius … by Metropolitan Emmanuel. Bishop Eustratius submitted it for Epiphany’s signature – by agreement with Emmanuel, without translation. It should be noted that the text was written in an archaic Greek language – Katarevusa – in which Metropolitan Epiphanius, with all due respect, is not well versed (he has a relatively simple modern Greek language). Therefore, it is difficult to say how fully and well His Beatitude understood what was written. But he signed the letter.

As a result, the trip of Archbishop Eustratius and his concelebration with Patriarch Bartholomew, Metropolitan Emmanuel really “struck”, albeit in a somewhat humiliating way for us. Therefore, from now on, Vladyka Eustratius presents Emmanuel and his contribution to the development of our Local Church everywhere.

For example, the archbishop makes it clear to the Ukrainian reader that Metropolitan Emmanuel remains the only channel of communication for Ukraine and is the “senior” from Constantinople. And his exclusive diplomatic powers will be expanded,” writes the Telegram channel.