Hierarch of Jerusalem: Ready to provide a venue for a council on Ukraine

Archbishop Theodosios of Sebastia. Photo: screenshot from "Religions Today" video

Archbishop Theodosiy of Sebastia (Atallah Hanna), a hierarch of the Jerusalem Patriarchate, stated that he is ready to provide a venue for holding a pan-Orthodox council dedicated to the Ukrainian church crisis. He said this in an interview with the publication Religions Today.

According to the archbishop, the situation surrounding the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is part of a broader crisis in global Orthodoxy caused by schisms and disagreements between Churches. He emphasized that such problems are not insoluble and can be overcome through dialogue, prayer, and brotherly communion.

“Patriarchs must meet, the primates of the Churches must meet, and a solution must be found. There is no problem that has no solution,” the hierarch noted.

Archbishop Theodosiy stated that the Jerusalem Patriarchate is ready to host such a meeting on its territory. According to him, the location itself is not of principal importance – it may be any city where the primates deem it possible to gather for the sake of restoring church unity.

“For the situation of the Orthodox Church to improve, the primates of the Churches must come together – in Jerusalem, in Amman, or in any place they choose,” the archbishop emphasized.

He also confirmed that the Jerusalem Patriarchate recognizes exclusively the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church headed by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy and does not recognize any other church structures in Ukraine.

The hierarch described the persecutions against the UOC – seizures of churches, pressure on clergy and believers, and arrests – as “a shameful stain on the body of humanity,” and called on Christian Churches and international human rights organizations to give these actions a principled assessment.

According to him, only conciliar discussion based on respect for church canons and mutual trust is capable of leading to decisions that will guarantee the unity of Orthodoxy and the preservation of its mission in the modern world.

As the UOJ previously reported, a UOC hierarch stated that the Jerusalem Church is a center capable of uniting Orthodoxy.

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