The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, His All Holiness Bartholomew I, on Tuesday officiated at a trisagion memorial service for the reposed Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral, Amphilochios, and the former Metropolitan of Pittsburgh of the Archdiocese of America, Maximos. The memorial service was held at the Patriarchal cathedral of St. George.
In an another item related to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, four hierarchs of the Archdiocese of Cyprus this week issued a response in the wake of His All Holiness’ comments, which referred to the issue of the Tomos of Autocephaly for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in tandem with last week’s decision by the Archbishop of Cyprus, His Beatitude Chrysostomos, to recognize the Tomos of autocephaly.
The four hierarchs who voiced opposition to the recognition by the Church of Cyprus’ primate are: Metropolitan Nikiforos of Kykkos, Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol, Metropolitan Isaiah of Tamassos and Bishop Nicholas of Amathounta.
In a letter addressed to the Ecumenical Patriarch, the four hierarchs expressed their sorrow over the latter’s statement regarding their opposition to the recognition of the Autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church.
A portion of the letter reads “…we do not agree, since none of the Primates of the Orthodox Churches attended the enthronement of Epifaniy, but to date only two local Churches have recognized him. However, recognition by the Archbishop of Cyprus is an arbitrary and illegal act.”
Epifaniy in this case refers to the Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine, the primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
