Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, accepted into his jurisdiction five defrocked priests by the Orthodox Church in Lithuania (Vilna-Lithuanian diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church). The statement of “restoration in the dignity” of the deposed clergymen was distributed on February 17, 2023, the Fanar Secretariat, writes Pravlaif.

According to the statement, the former Lithuanian priests Vladimir Selyavko, Vitaliy Motzkus, Vitaly Dauparas, Gintaras Sungail and Georgy Ananiev, deprived of the dignity with the Church Court of the Lithuanian Archbishopician, in writing turned to Patriarch Bartholomew with a request to cancel the corresponding decision of their priestly leadership and restore them in former church degrees.

As reported, “after an exhaustive study of the relevant circumstances,” the Patriarch Constantinople found that the reasons for the sanctions to the former Lithuanian clergy “did not have a church criterion, but proceeded from their fair opposition to the war in Ukraine.”