“This is what the current socio-political situation requires,” is the explanation given in public by Metropolitan Hilarion of Budapest and Hungary for his dismissal from the position of president of the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate and from the position of Metropolitan of Volokolamsk.
As Hilarion said from the Bolshaya Ordynka temple where he performed liturgy on Sunday, this decision taken by the leadership of the Russian Church is not related to any weaknesses in the activities of the DECR or other ecclesiastical institutions of which he was the head.
“A lot of people ask me these days: why did this happen? In fact, I myself do not know many details.
They have been told me that the decision (of the dismissal) is not linked to any shortcomings or weaknesses in the chairmanship of the DECR, nor in relation to any ecclesiastical institution that I headed.
It has only been said that this is what the current socio-political situation requires. That the road made a very steep turn, I couldn’t fit and I ended up on the side of the road. But it’s better than tipping the car over and exploding, ”he added.
He added that life goes on, and that there is no need to dramatise these events. There may be ups and downs in the life of the clergyman. And promotions to the so-called career and demotions.
All this is temporary and is not the reason we serve the Church. I have never sought high appointments, neither in the Synod, nor privileges, and I will never regret losing them. ”
