by Efi Efthimiou
Metropolitan Nektarios of Corfu showed exceptional tolerance towards the insults against the Church of Greece and the Ecumenical Patriarchate by Metropolitan Luke of Zaporizhia of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
Metropolitan Nektarios of Corfu, a member of the Church of Greece, concelebrated the Divine Liturgy this morning in the Church of Saint Spyridon with the Metropolitan of Zaporizhia, on the day which the city celebrates its patron saint.
The Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, which is headed by Metropolitan Onufriy, is well known in Greece, let alone to a hierarch of the Church of Greece.
Metropolitan Luke has attacked with outrageous and offensive -at least- expressions both the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Church of Greece and of Cyprus because of the recognition of the Ukrainian autocephaly and Metropolitan Epifaniy by these Churches.
He had stated that the Synods of the Churches that recognized the Church of Ukraine, “are heretics, who went against the dogmas of the Church.”
He considered that “it is necessary to end the Eucharistic communion with the heretics.”
Just yesterday, on the initiative of Metropolitan Luke of Zaporizhia, a campaign was launched by the Russian Church of Metropolitan Onufriy in Ukraine, against the visit of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to Kyiv in the near future.
The issue is clear. The Church of Greece and Archbishop Ieronymos have recognized the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, and Metropolitan Epifaniy has been included in the diptychs of the Church of Greece.
The attitude of the Metropolitan of Corfu, that is, to concelebrate with Metropolitan of Zaporizhia, an abuser and denier of the canonical status of the decision of both the Church of Greece and of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, places him against the line taken by the Church to which he belongs and serves.
It remains to be seen whether these actions of the Metropolitan of Corfu will go unnoticed by the hierarchy of the Church of Greece.
The issue -according to information from orthodoxtimes.com– may be discussed at the meeting of the Holy Synod at the end of August.