The administrator of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanych), commented on the possibility of empowering the head of the Jerusalem Church with the authority of coordinator of inter-Orthodox relations. This was discussed in an interview with the hierarch of the UOC with RIA Novosti.

“I am sure that such a decision should be made in a conciliar way. And the history of the Church, which has witnessed many cases of the settlement of problems of a pan-Orthodox scale without the participation of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, can help in this,” the hierarch noted.

He recalled that in this context the most striking precedent should be considered the convocation in 1443 by the Jerusalem Patriarch of the Council of the Primates of the Eastern Churches.

“It condemned both the Ferraro-Florentine Union of the Patriarchate of Constantinople with Catholics, and the Uniate Patriarch of Constantinople Metrophanes II, as well as all the hierarchs who betrayed the Orthodox faith with him.

We can also recall the Council of 513 held in Jerusalem, which opposed the heresy of Monophysitism that had spread in the Church of Constantinople, and the Council of 1672, which resulted in the approval of the Orthodox Confession of Faith in 18 chapters, which eventually became an important doctrinal document of the entire Orthodox Church,” said Metropolitan Anthony.