The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church has expressed its opinion on the decision of the Romanian Church to establish the “Romanian Church of Ukraine”.

The Synod “had a judgment on the decisions of the Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church of February 29, 2024 on the establishment of the “Romanian Orthodox Church in Ukraine” and the non-recognition of the validity of the canonical interdicts imposed on the clergy of the Orthodox Church of Moldova, accepted without letters of leave in the “Metropolitanate of Bessarabia” of the Romanian Patriarchate”.

The members of the Synod stated that the mentioned resolutions of the Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church “are in direct contradiction with the sacred canons”.

The Synod decided to “express strong disagreement with these resolutions, which in case of their further implementation will inevitably entail grave consequences both for the bilateral relations of the Russian and Romanian Orthodox Churches, and for the unity of the Orthodox Church as a whole”.

It is also noted that the “Romanian Orthodox clerics … returning to the Metropolitanate of Bessarabia” mentioned in the decision of the Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church never actually belonged to the latter, nor to the Romanian Patriarchate as a whole. They received the sacred dignity in the Russian Orthodox Church and were punished for violation of the priestly oath and other canonical offenses, and not at all “because of their belonging to the Romanian Orthodox Church”, to which they cannot belong due to the absence of a letter of leave”.

The Synod instructed His Eminence Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Department for External Church Relations, to “further study the issue of the actions of the Romanian Patriarchate and make timely proposals for consideration by the Holy Synod.” as well as “to express support for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Orthodox Church of Moldova, their First Hierarchs, episcopate, clergy, monastics and laity in connection with non-canonical encroachments by the Synod of the Romanian Patriarchate”.

We will remind, earlier we wrote that on February 29, 2024 there was a meeting of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church, one of the decisions of which was the establishment of the “Romanian Orthodox Church of Ukraine” in Ukraine.