Met. Seraphim of Piraeus: Church shouldn’t be an instrument of geopolitics

Metropolitane Seraphim of Piraeus

His Eminence believes that the ongoing controversy between Phanar and Moscow on Ukraine is "a complex, multifaceted issue that concerns the entire Orthodox Church", reports Romfea.

Emphasizing that the Church should not be used as a nationalistic tool, he emphasized that "the Church is the people of God who are moving in time towards the Kingdom of God, and that is why ethno-phyletism is a heresy".

"Therefore, we are talking not about national Churches, but about the people of God, the Church, which includes everyone: Russians, Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbians, and those who accept faith in Jesus Christ," His Eminence affirmed.

Met. Seraphim of Piraeus addressed the Ukrainian government: "You are playing a terrible geopolitical and geostrategic game between NATO and the Russian Federation, so understand that these things cannot be used as tools in the Church."

Earlier, the Church of Greece called on the Patriarchate of Constantinople to break communication with the schismatics in Ukraine "in order to avoid new schisms".

As reported by the UOJ, at an extraordinary meeting of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, following Phanar’s actions in Ukraine, it was decided that the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church should suspend the commemoration of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.

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