LAST UPDATE: 17:30
The suspension of the Metochion of the Patriarchate of Alexandria in the Russian capital is underway by the Moscow Patriarchate. “The operation of the Metochion of the Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa in Moscow is temporarily suspended,” Archpriest Igor Yakimchuk told Interfax on Monday. As the senior clergyman of the Moscow Patriarchate noted, the final decision on what is to come next with the operation and activity of the Alexandrian Metochion will be taken by the Russian Holy Synod in December.
The possible “banishment” of the Metochion of the Patriarchate of Alexandria from the Russian capital is yet another sign that the Moscow Patriarchate is toughening and escalating its aggressive actions and sanctions against those Churches that have recognized the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. These new “sanctions” are included in the “package” of “aggressive countermeasures” imposed by Moscow as a lever for pressure on Churches that recognize the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
Likewise for the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Moscow, in addition to disrupting communion with Patriarch Bartholomew, has forbidden its faithful from traveling to and attending churches belonging to the Phanar’s influence, while is gradually exercising ecclesiastical penetration by creating exarchates and parallel jurisdictions within Europe, but also in the Asian continent.
For Greece, Moscow has issued an unacceptable ” shame” list of “unwanted” Metropolises. The plans for Alexandria seem to be similar. Besides, a few days ago, Moscow Patriarchate’s spokesman Vladimir Legoyda, in a statement to the Telegram news agency, argued that the Moscow Patriarchate is considering a review of Russian pastoralism on the African continent, which means that Moscow might be preparing a revisional and expansionist policy on the African continent too.
So, on the pretext of not being in Communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate nor with the Church of Greece and the Patriarchate of Alexandria, and that the Russians who live in those areas won’t be able to have pastoral care, the Patriarchate of Moscow is likely to reveal its real objectives, having as an excuse the issue of the autocephaly of the Church of Ukraine; to create and expand, wherever it can, its parallel -non-canonical- ecclesiastical jurisdiction in regions that fall under the canonical jurisdiction of other Orthodox Churches.
