On May 11, the OCU Synod's spokesman Archbishop Yevstratiy (Zorya), commented in his blog on Glavkom on
the appeal by Moscow-backed organizations and individuals to the State
Council of the Hellenic Republic against the decision of the Holy Synod
of the Church of Greece to recognize the autocephaly of the Church of
Ukraine.
The Council of State is vested with the
rights of the highest administrative judicial authority, and as the
Church of Greece is state-run, the appellants tried to get the Church's
decision overturned in the manner prescribed for challenging state
administrative decisions. This approach to the issue was rejected by the
Council as unacceptable, and the appeal was dismissed. About this
Yevstraty (Zorya) wrote in his blog on Glavkom.
"The plenary session of the Council of
State decided that it did not have the relevant scope of legal capacity
as a judicial authority to control the decision of the Holy Synod of
Bishops of the Church of Greece, which recognized the right of the
Ecumenical Patriarchate to declare autocephaly Churches in Ukraine since
it is a purely internal Church's matter. In particular, the plenary
meeting of the Council rejected the request of the "Panhellenic Orthodox
Union" and individuals who requested to repeal the decision of the Holy
Synod of hierarchs of the Greek Church, which acknowledged in line with
the canon law the right of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to provide
autocephaly to the Church of Ukraine, as well as the privilege of the
Archbishop of Athens on this issue on behalf of the Church of Greece,"
said the OCU spokesman.
He explained that the State Council
decided that the decision of the Holy Synod concerns internal Church
issues, as well as inter-Orthodox relations, and these issues are
regulated exclusively by Canon law, and not by state rules, and does not
imply legal consequences for the state and the duties of state bodies.
Therefore, the request for repealing is unacceptable, since it
challenges a deed of spiritual character, which is not an executive
administrative act, so it cannot be controlled by the State Council.