Russia is “exerting inelegant ecclesiastical pressure” on Greece, Metropolitan Anthimos of Alexandroupolis says.
In an interview with viadiplomacy.gr, the Metropolitan, on the occasion of recognition of the Autocephalous Church of Ukraine by the Church of Greece, states that this decision was made because “this was imposed by our pastoral responsibility on both the Church and our history.”
Metropolitan Anthimos further emphasized that “the Church of Russia also has to act according to historical-ecclesiastical criteria in order to re-establish its role in Orthodoxy.”
As he also pointed out, “Our Church can no longer move beyond its eternal limits; Orthodoxy no longer aims at obsessive primacies, nor do our Christians tolerate numerical pressures or economic raids. Rather they abhor all this as medieval blots and we are all looking for simplistic but crucial answers to our complex lives.”
Metropolitan Anthimos noted that “if Russia, which has frustrated nationally her traditionally friendly attitude towards our country, continues the on-going inelegant ecclesiastical pressure, both in northern Greece and throughout our homeland, then I think she will be led from a knee-jerk error to a huge mistake. I wish and pray that she doesn’t.”
