Metr. Emmanuel Rejects Russian Claims Over Montenegro and Baltic Churches

Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon. Photo: Orthodox Times

ATHENS — Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon has firmly rejected claims by Russian intelligence services that the Ecumenical Patriarchate intends to support the creation of a so-called “Church of Montenegro,” calling the allegations baseless and misleading.

Speaking in an interview with Parapolitika Radio, the hierarch stated: “I’ll say it plainly: we have never had anything to do with this issue. It is not even a church structure — just some kind of group that cannot even be called schismatic. We have never had any contact with this group in Montenegro. This is simply informational noise on their part.”

In Kyiv in 2019, Metropolitan Emmanuel inadvertently concelebrated with an individual from the Montenegrin "church," the “Archimandrite” Boris Bojovic, "an unrecognized breakaway from the Serbian Orthodox Church that has long had relations with and enjoyed the support of the Ukrainian schismatics."

In that instance, the press service of the Ecumenical Patriarchate said that, with so many clergy present at the liturgy, it was impossible for Metropolitan Emmanuel to know who all of them were.

But as Orthodox Christianity reported in 2019:

"Moreover, the 'Montenegrin Church' is currently headed by 'Metropolitan' Mihailo Dedeić, who was defrocked, excommunicated, and anathematized while serving as a priest of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in Italy.

Although President Milo Đukanović of Montenegro has publicly declared his intent to achieve autocephalous status for the tiny 'Montenegrin Orthodox Church,' the public relations head stressed that Constantinople is in canonical unity with the Serbian Orthodox Church and recognizes only its jurisdiction on the territory of Montenegro.

However, Constantinople also used to declare that it recognized only the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church and its canonical Ukrainian Church on the territory of Ukraine, while the events of the past year have shown that Constantinople can change its mind dramatically."

Following this event, the state-backed Orthodox Church of Ukraine said: "The participation of the aforementioned person in the Liturgy does not mean that the Orthodox Church of Ukraine will recognize the jurisdiction to which it belongs or whether the OCU has church-canonical communication with this jurisdiction. If someone was harmed by this event, then we assure you that this did not happen intentionally."

This shows a lack of understanding of the Eucharist, as "it is proper Orthodox practice to only share the Eucharist with those with whom there is Eucharistic communion."

Metropolitan Emmanuel also addressed Russian accusations that Constantinople is interfering in the affairs of Orthodox Churches in the Baltic states. He said the Russian Orthodox Church “already sees that many believers and clergy who are in the Baltic countries will want to join the Church that gives them freedom,” adding that the Churches in Latvia and Lithuania “will lose their flock.”

Commenting further, the hierarch criticized public statements by Baltic Church leaders claiming they are no longer part of the Moscow Patriarchate. Recounting a recent exchange, he said: “When His Holiness asked Metropolitan Alexander in Latvia: ‘Whom do you commemorate?’, he replied: ‘I commemorate all Orthodox bishops.’ – ‘But you are not the primate of all Orthodox!’ The fact is that he does not want to commemorate Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, because he considers it disadvantageous for their unity with Moscow to be noticeable. That is why this service – the former KGB, which we talked about, – reacts so sharply.”

Previously, UOJ reported that Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon said autocephaly for the state-backed Orthodox Church of Ukraine was "absolutely justified."

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