The Russian Orthodox Church breaks with Constantinople in Ukraine

MINSK (Reuters) – The Russian Orthodox Church said on Monday that it has decided to sever all relations with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople to protest against Ukraine's approval of its request for an "autocephalous" or independent church.

Speaking in Belarus after a meeting of the governing body of the Russian Church, cleric Metropolitan Ilarion said that the Holy Synod had no choice but to break ties with the patriarchate of Istanbul, headquarters of the world spiritual leader of about 300 million Orthodox. The Christians.

Ukraine obtained last week the approval of Constantinople for the creation of an independent church in what Kiev considered an essential step in the fight against the interference of Russia in its affairs, but that the Orthodox Church Russian lamented as the greatest split in Christianity for a thousand years.

"A decision has been made to sever ties completely," Metropolitan Ilarion told reporters in Minsk, capital of Belarus, announcing Russia's retaliation against Constantinople.

"Our Holy Synod could not have made any other decision, because the logic of all the measures taken recently by the Patriarchate of Constantinople has led to that."

The Russian Orthodox Church compared Ukraine's attempts at independence to the great schism of 1054, which divided Western and Eastern Christianity, and warned that it could lead to an irreversible break in the global Orthodox community.

Ilarion said that Constantinople's decision to support the independence efforts of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was illegal and that the Russian Orthodox Church would neglect it.

"We hope that common sense will prevail and that the Patriarchate of Constantinople will change its relationship with the reality of the existing church," he said.

The conflict over Ukraine's spiritual future stems from the poisoning of relations between Kiev and Moscow after the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014 and the outbreak of separatist fighting in eastern Ukraine, which have killed more than 10,000 people.

The Moscow Patriarchate, which is aligned with the Russian Orthodox Church, has long dominated Ukraine, but since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, it has been challenged by a rival, the Kiev Patriarchate.

Ukraine accuses the Russian Orthodox Church of exerting a pernicious influence on its soil, allowing itself to be used as a tool of the Kremlin to justify Russian expansionism and support separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine .

The Moscow Patriarchate denies that his church is a threat to the security of Ukraine and, far from being a stooge of the Kremlin, claims to have done much to promote peace in the east of the country.