The major difficulties faced by the Orthodox Churches in recognizing Ukraine’s autocephalous Church remain. The pressure exerted on them has nothing to do with the ecclesiastical order. Regarding this the Ecumenical Patriarchate is, in general, on the right side. The issue is primarily financial. “If you proceed with the recognition, we are cutting off our financial support,” the Russians say in every way.
That is why everyone is still moving at the pace that Hilarion of Volokolamsk requires. It is noteworthy that in Cyprus out of the twelve metropolitans, ten are somehow related to the Russian Church. They will therefore hardly recognize the Church of Ukraine. Probably they will be the last ones to do so. And it is unknown when this will be.
In Jerusalem after Patriarch Theophilos’s initiative to call for a Panorthodox meeting ended in a complete failure, Mr. Theophilos – although was pledging to support the Phanar- remains numb in the corner awaiting developments. The one who seems to follow the path of the Archbishop of Athens and the Patriarch of Alexandria is said to be the Romanian Patriarch Daniel and then the Bulgarian Orthodox.
The “conspiracy” of the ten
There is a rumor, coming from these ecclesiastical gossips scattered here and there by archimandrites, who are looking forward to becoming metropolitans, that ten hierarchs orchestrate a plan of “unhorsing” the current Archbishop Ieronymos.
There are rumors circulating here and there that his health is deteriorating day by day and that he will soon resign. Others involve his biological… sister – the Archbishop has an older brother and not a sister – in various dubious transactions that “will force him to resign”.
It is worth asking oneself: instead of everyone wondering how to dislodge the former, it would be good to see what proposal they have to offer for the next one. What fresh prospect are the candidate dauphins going to bring to the Church of Greece, and what will their proposal be.
