DECR MP: Even bishops who recognized OCU avoid concelebrating with Dumenko

Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk. Photo: credo.press

In addition to Patriarch Bartholomew, Orthodox hierarchs, who have recognized the autocephaly of the OCU, avoid concelebrating with the head of the Ukrainian schismatics Epiphany Dumenko. It concerns even those of them who agreed to this under pressure, said in an interview to RIA Novosti the Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk.

The hierarch stated this in the context of the issue of autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of America (OCA), about which the head of Phanar said that "it has not yet been recognized by anyone" in an interview with the Georgian opposition television channel TVFormula.

Vladyka Hilarion denied this report and noted that the Georgian Orthodox Church was onr of the first to recognize the OCA.

“The autocephalous status of the Orthodox Church of America is recognized by a significant portion of the Local Orthodox Churches. And of course, no one, even in Constantinople, has any doubts about the canonical dignity of the primate and episcopate of the Orthodox Church of America. Patriarch Bartholomew and the heads of other Local Churches meet and concelebrate with His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon,” stressed the head of the DECR MP.

As the UOJ informed earlier, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) stated that Patriarch Bartholomew demonstrates ignorance in matters of Ukrainian Orthodoxy.

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