Moscow Patriarchate prepared for dialogue with Constantinople but not going to change stance on Ukraine – spokesperson

The Russian Orthodox Church is prepared for a dialogue with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople but is not going to renounce the truth, Vladimir Legoyda, the head of the Synodal Department for Church, Society and Media Relations, said on RT.

The Russian Orthodox Church is “extremely concerned about the situation in Ukraine in various fields,” Legoyda said.

“As concerns relations with Constantinople, you see, a Christian has no right to think about some point of no return in the sense that we are always prepared for a dialogue, but this dialogue cannot mean renouncing the truth,” Legoyda said.

The Russian Orthodox Church’s position on Ukraine is identical to that Constantinople had always assumed before April 2018, when Ukraine started seeking autocephaly for its church, he said.

“This is not to imply that we might revise our position or agree to some compromise. This is out of the question. We are willing to talk, but Constantinople should enter this dialogue. What we have now is non-intersecting monologues. We are ready, but the ball is not in our court. We need some appropriate answer,” Legoyda said.

On October 11, the Constantinople Patriarchate’s Synod in Istanbul abolished its 1686 decree handing the Kiev Metropolitanate over to Moscow, announced the creation of a mission in Kiev, and rehabilitated the leaders of self-proclaimed Orthodox churches in Ukraine. The Moscow Patriarchate’s Synod responded by severing ties with Constantinople.

Source: Interfax

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