According to the Greek theologian, Ukrainian Orthodox believers do not want to leave the UOC and join the OCU because of possible excommunication from the Church.
Greek theologian, professor of the University of Athens Nikos Kouremenos stated that the religious situation in Ukraine divides the Local Orthodox Churches.
In an interview with Euronews, Nikos Kouremenos said that the OCU was recognized only by a minority of 15 official Orthodox churches: Cyprus, Hellas and Alexandria, and the Russian Orthodox Church still considers it a schismatic group.
“The Orthodox world is clearly divided when it comes to the Ukrainian religious issue,” explained Nikos Kouremenos, a lecturer at the University of Athens.
“Some Orthodox Churches, which can be considered satellites of Moscow, such as the Serbian and Antioch Patriarchates, openly rejected the idea of an autocephalous Kyiv Orthodox Church (OCU – Ed.),” he said.
“Other Patriarchates, such as the Georgian and Romanian, did not take any formal steps towards the recognition of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. They held back,” Kouremenos said.
According to him, many Ukrainian Orthodox believers do not want to leave the UOC and join the OCU, “fearing possible excommunication from the Church as schismatics.”
However, he says, the entire religious situation in Ukraine “by itself led to a split.”
Earlier, SPJ wrote that the Greek theologian explained why the Church does not accuse the head of the Russian Orthodox Church of heresy .
There are bishops in Greece and Cyprus who do not recognize the OCU so even those Churches are not entirely in communion with the schismatics. It is not accurate to call the Churches of Serbia and Antioch “satellites” of Moscow. Those Churches along Bulgaria, Georgia, Rumania, Jerusalem, Poland, the Czech and Slovak lands, and Albania refuse to recognize the OCU on strictly canonical grounds.
Ending this schism is the top priority for Orthodoxy along with ending the persecution of the Ukrainian Church.
The professor is wrong, because it was not the entire Synod of Greece, Cyprus, and Alexandria that agreed to “recognition”. As a matter of fact, we’ve repeatedly stated that the only Synod to fully approve this situation is Constantinople. The “Athens Synod” proceedings ended in a fiasco, with no real vote, but a claim by the Archbishop that he heard “more in favor than against” during the nasty arguments in that session, and he walked out to read a “pre-written announcement” to the media waiting outside, with no real vote every transpiring…As evidence of this,Moscow has only ceased Communion with Constantinople, but still maintains an active list of bishops who commemorate and concelebrate with the “Epiphanios sect”, as well as a list of those bishops from Greece / Cyprus / Alexandria who DON’T. I’m not sure why these “professors” aren’t acknowledging these important details, and the media outlets continue to propagate inaccurate depictions of reality on the ground.
However, the Professor is right in calling this a schism…but did he just wake up from a 6 year sleep? What kind of revelation is this?