While responding to the criticism of Moscow via Facebook,
the Deputy Head of the External Church Relations Department of the OCU
Evstratiy Zoria explained that on October 12, the Council of the Church
of Greece recognized the autocephaly of the OCU.
"Just as I predicted, the Russian side
is trying to "diminish" the consequences of the decision made by the
Council of Hierarchs of the Church of Greece... Now there are
speculations that a procedural decision was not taken at the Council,
and therefore that the “decision was not made," Bishop Evstratiy writes.
He explained that, first and foremost,
such an order was deliberately chosen, since the conclusions of the
Synodal Committees, based on the Standing Synod and the Council of
Hierarchs, state that the right of the all-orthodox proclamation of
autocephaly belongs to the Ecumenical Patriarch. Therefore, voting on
this matter in the other Local Church would call this right into a
question, and consequently, all the autocephaly proclaimed by the
Ecumenical Patriarchate, including the autocephaly of the Church of
Greece itself.
"To put it simply, it would seem just as
unnatural as if, after the election of the Primate in some Local
Church, the other Local Church would vote to determine whether to accept
this election," Bishop Evstratiy writes and further proves the
legitimacy of the Ukrainian autocephaly recognition.
“Secondly, the Council specifically
elected a committee led by Metropolitan Hierotheos (Vlachos) to present
the opinion publicly. Thus, his statements after the Council on
recognition of the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church are not mere
thoughts of a single hierarch (just like the opinions of those who did
not want to support the cathedral decision and whose statements Moscow
is trying to lean on in its propaganda). Metropolitan Hierotheos
proclaimed the official position of the Council and therefore the
position of the Church of Greece.
One way or another, the Moscow
informational smog will flutter in a week. Though, we have to explain
the seemingly obvious things to minimize the number of affected people.”