The policy of establishing the so-called Orthodox Church of Ukraine violates the precepts of state non-interference in ecclesiastical life as well as the canons of Orthodox Christianity, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at the Russian-Tajik Slavonic University on Tuesday.
“The decision was totally illegitimate by all canons – both by the canons of state non-interference in ecclesiastical life and the canons of Orthodox Christianity itself, because the 1686 decision on transferring that church under the Moscow Patriarchate’s auspices made in Constantinople is irrevocable. All you have to do is read it,” the minister emphasized.
“I believe that this travesty of history, and pursuing the objective of sowing discord between Russia and Ukraine in addition to preventing our peoples from being friends are essentially a crime [by the current Ukrainian regime] against their citizens,” he stressed.
SOURCE: TASS
