The metropolitan of Volokolamsk Ilarion met with students at the Moscow Theological Academy
On December 17 th the metropolitan of Volokolamsk Ilarion, Head of the Office of External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, gave a lecture in the main hall of the Moscow Theological Academy on “Inter-Orthodox relations in a modern world”. He gave a characteristic of a contemporary situation in Orthodox churches and especially focused on a Ukrainian issue.
The metropolitan started his lectured with the Apostle Paul’s words.
I would like to begin by the Apostle Paul’s epistle to the Romans where he mentions that “if it is possible from your part, be in peace with everyone”. Apostle appealed to everyone and to the Church he was responsible for. Those words should equally appeal to us nowadays despite some current circumstances. However, this message consists of two parts.
Primarily, this exhortation was addressed to the world, while on the other hand, the first part says “if it is possible from your part”. These words show that such situation might not always be possible even if we sincerely want it to be so, and we will have to give an appropriate answer to all evil attacks. Let us remember how long and exhausting was the way to Victory, 75 th anniversary of which we are going to celebrate next year. The crucial point was “a treacherous German invasion of Soviet Union”. Despite the Western requests to reconsider our history, it stays quite obvious and clear for everyone. The fact is that it was Germany who intruded into Soviet Union and not vice versa.
This year we faced quite similar intrusion from Constantinople Patriarchate to our canonic territory which provoked our further general direction of inter-Orthodox relations. Nowadays it stopped being the only concern of Constantinople and Moscow Patriarchates. Generally speaking, the fact of acceptance or non- acceptance the deeds of Patriarch Bartholomew becomes strongly dominant among all Orthodox inter-church relations in all their multitude and complexity. Each Orthodox church has to identify itself in terms of supporting or opposing this issue.
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Metropolitan Ilarion also reminded the history of Ukrainian schism and recent events concerning an attempt of its legalization through getting Thomas which is a decree of the Primate of the Manorial Orthodox church about main questions of a church management. Thomas gives the status of autocephaly or independence to a church.
At the end of the lecture metropolitan Ilarion summed up performance results of the preceding year:
We found ourselves in a rather difficult situation. The results in the area of inter- Orthodox relations were quite unfavourable and antagonistic. However, I think that the main outcome of this year was not the Eucharistic separation with the Constantinople Patriarchate or other churches who openly support Ukrainian schism. The main outcome was the preservation of our church unity under the immense pressure it had to resist. First of all, I mean Ukrainian church which did not falter or shatter. The number of traitors was just negligible, just two out of ninety took part in a faulty council. I would like to say that it is even less than the number of traitors surrounding Christ. As you all know there was one out of twelve and there are only two out of ninety.
Metropolitan Ilarion gave his comment on Greek bishops’ words, who think that Russian church use the Eucharist to manipulate an opinion:
Some of our Greek brothers say: “Well, why did you stop relationship with Constantinople as you did not leave open the door to dialogue?” We did not close that door, we just followed some church rules and canons which forebode to share the Eucharist with schematics. What should we have done instead? Would it be right to have normal relations with Constantinople who intruded into our canonic territory? We are accused of manipulating the Eucharist for our own needs and reaching some political aims. I would like to ensure that we do not manipulate anything or anybody and do not force anybody. We just have to react appropriately to what happens around us”.
After the lecture metropolitan Ilarion answered students’ questions.Throughout the meeting, Bishop Alexiy maintained a lively dialogue. At the end, the students could ask some questions.
MThA Press Office
