Archbishop Ambrose of Vereya, dean of the Ipapanti Seminary, visited Metropolitan Maximos of Ioannina.
The two hierarchs discussed a number of issues, including the issue of the Autocephaly of the Church of Ukraine.
The Metropolitan of Ioannina referred to the efforts of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and his concessions in recent years, “in order to maintain the unity and going hand in hand with the Russian Church, which was not only not appreciated, but the Ecumenical Patriarch reached the point to be abandoned by the Moscow Patriarchate before the Holy and Great Council of Crete, and found himself being accused, while everything had been agreed upon in the pre-trial procedures, and always with his sacrifices and consessions,” the Metropolitan of Ioannina reports.
The Archbishop of Vereya, for his part, referred to the reactions of the Russian people regarding issues related to the relations with heterodox Christian confessions.
In response, the Metropolitan of Ioannina reminded him of the Joint Declaration of Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, shortly before the Great Council of Crete, in which, according to him, “there were things written about the relations of the two Churches that provoke the Orthodox sense.”
The Metropolitan of Ioannina also called on the Archbishop of Vereya to convey to Moscow his disagreement regarding the measure of excommunication imposed by the Moscow Patriarchate on the Ecumenical Patriarchate and called on the Russian Orthodox Church to restrain itself, to maintain the unity of Orthodoxy.
“No one wants a schism and we are glad that the Ecumenical Patriarchate did not follow the same excommunication measures imposed by the Russian Church,” he said.
