Bishop Irenaeus of Bac (Serbian Orthodox Church), participating in the conference “World Orthodoxy: Primacy and Conciliarity in the Light of the Orthodox Doctrine”, which is taking place in Moscow, characterized the actions of the Phanar in Ukraine as the canonical anarchy, pravoslavie reports.

Speaking about the granting of autocephaly by the Patriarch of Constantinople to the Ukrainian schismatics, Bishop Irenaeus emphasized:

“Autocephaly should be a confirmation and strengthening of the conciliarity and unity of the Church, but in reality it has become a wall of temptation and a stumbling block. It is used as a tool and means to destroy the unity of the Church with a tendency to redefine Orthodox ecclesiology.

Canonical disorder, canonical anarchy, interference and invasion of the canonical territory of other Local Orthodox Churches are already receiving their miserable quasi-theological explanation and justification.

The pastoral aspect and the soteriological perspective of the Church’s activities in the world become unimportant or even ignored. All this is happening before our eyes, it is shown today by the sad example of the behavior of the Patriarchate of Constantinople – our Mother Church, which unfortunately has forgotten what real motherly care and love means.

“The situation is very tragic and dangerous, but I am sure that both on the day of Pentecost and throughout the entire history of the Church, the Holy Spirit guides the Church. The Savior convinces us that the gates of hell will not prevail against her, cannot overcome her, and I am sure that some solution will be found.

Because if this split lasts too long, a new split, like the one in the 18th century, will be inevitable, and the blame will be on those who caused such a split. God grant that this does not happen, and somehow the situation will heal with time,” the Serbian bishop expressed his hope.