Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte, at a meeting with Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, said that “Orthodox believers in her country should have a choice – which church to go to,” commenting on the intention to establish an exarchate of Phanar in Lithuania. This was reported by the press service of the Lithuanian government.
“It is quite understandable and historically justified that in order to confess their faith without conflict with their conscience, representatives of national communities turned to His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew with a request to accept them into the mother Church of Constantinople,” Simonyte said.
“The state and its officials cannot interfere or try to influence the canonical decisions of the Churches, but when they are made, it would be hypocritical to pretend that we do not understand their importance,” the official stressed.