Met. Hilarion: Archbishop of Cyprus to be crossed out from diptychs of ROC
The Russian Church may break Eucharistic communion with Archbishop Chrysostom but not with the Cypriot Church as such.
On October 24, 2020, the Head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk, said that in his opinion, the name of the Primate of the Cypriot Orthodox Church may be deleted from the diptychs of the Russian Orthodox Church, reports the website of the Russian Church with reference to the RIA resource.
Commenting on the commemoration of the name of Epiphany Dumenko by Archbishop Chrysostomos during the service, Metropolitan Hilarion said, “We deeply regret this sad event. The decision will be made by the Holy Synod. However, I believe that the Archbishop of Cyprus will be deleted from the diptychs of the Russian Orthodox Church, that is, his commemoration at the service will be terminated until all the circumstances of the incident are clarified.”
According to him, "this means the termination of the Eucharistic communion with a specific person – not with the Church of Cyprus as such."
Explaining the motives of Archbishop Chrysostomos, Metropolitan Hilarion said that “it is no secret to anyone that he (Chrysostomos – Ed.) was under pressure from the Patriarch of Constantinople, who is very interested in at least one more Church to recognize his lawless deed. There was pressure from the United States, where they are interested in weakening the Russian Church and opposing the Greek world to the Slavic world. "
He also stated that the Russian Church “will continue to communicate with all bishops who do not recognize the unilateral decision of the Archbishop. The Russian people have always been close to the Cypriot people, our pilgrims will continue to visit the shrines of those metropolises of the Cypriot Church, whose heads will remain in communion with the Russian Church. "
However, Metropolitan Hilarion noted, “above all for us is the unity of our Church and the firm preservation of the dogmatic teaching and canonical tradition of Holy Orthodoxy. The fact that individual hierarchs and even Primates of Churches violate the canons saddens us. But we cannot and will not sacrifice Orthodoxy and the canons. And we will firmly preserve the unity of our Church.”
As reported earlier, the Primate of the Cyprus Church commemorated Epiphany.
