Τhe Metropolitan of Mesogea and Lavreotiki, His Eminence Nicholaos, this week underlined that unity must prevail within Orthodoxy and that whatever present conflicts must be bridged, speaking just days after the Church of Greece’s hierarchs convened during an extraordinary session on Saturday to consider the contentious issue of the Tomos of Autocephaly for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
The Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece’s Metropolitans have recognized that Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Ieronymos has the right to personally manage the issue, and that the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople has the right to grant the Tomos. The Archbishop, in fact, unveiled his position in favor of the Patriarchate’s decision last November to grant the Tomos of Autocephaly to the Ukrainian Church,
In an exclusive interview to the Orthodoxia News Agency and Antonis Makatounis, His Eminence Nicholaos said he has submitted relevant correspondence to Archbishop Ieronymos over the matter, while detailing the parameters and complexity of the entire issue of Ukrainian autocephaly.
Nicholaos emphasized that the issue must be resolved at the level of Orthodox Church Primates, while deploring what he called hastiness in taking such a momentous decision, as it would have been “preferable for the issue to have matured”, as he characteristically said.
Moreover, he said there was no vote taken by the Church of Greece’s hierarchs during Saturday’s session.
The Greek Orthodox Metropolitan warned, in fact: “if we continue with such intensity, there is a risk of a historic schism, a burden that we must not shoulder”.
