Constantinople has no privileges of power. It is important to understand that Constantinople received rights using its political and state status, said Bishop Sylvester of Belogorodsk, rector of the Kiev Theological Academy and Seminary, in an interview with Channel One.

According to the hierarch, supporters of Constantinople, speaking about his rights and privileges, refer to the 28th rule of the Council of Chalcedon, the 17th rule of the Second Ecumenical Council, the 36th rule of the 6th Ecumenical Council, etc.

However, in the 28th rule, for example, it is spelled out: Constantinople as the city of the Senate and the emperor.

“That is, the status of the capital made it possible to adopt a rule about some special position of Constantinople. But we all know that the capital of Byzantium, like Byzantium itself, has long ceased to exist. Accordingly, the privileges that were given to the metropolitan department, they were lost due to the loss of the capital itself.

Among other things, of course, given the historical significance of the Constantinople See for a large number of centuries, we can talk about the primacy of honor, but not about the primacy of powers.

Now, it is not even the primacy of powers that is visible, but a pronounced tendency to simply single-handed adoption of a number of very, very important decisions. Forming great ecclesiological conclusions behind themselves,” the hierarch emphasized.