Fokidos, Greece, November 15, 2019
Met. Theoktistos concelebrating with the schismatic bishops. Photo: imfokid.gr
At least one metropolitan of the Greek Church who supports the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” is stepping up his support and rhetoric.
Clergy and laity of the Russian Orthodox Church who do not recognize the autocephaly of the OCU as granted by Patriarch Bartholomew will no longer be accepted in the Fokidos Metropolis of the Greek Church, Metropolitan Theoktistos of Fokidos declared during the Divine Liturgy yesterday at the Monastery of Sts. Seraphim of Sarov and St. Augustine of Hippo, reports the diocesan website.
“After the decision of our Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to grant autocephaly to the Ukrainian Church and its recognition by the Bishops’ Council of the Greek Orthodox Church headed by Archbishop Ieronymos, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is canonical and not schismatic,” the message states
The report also recalls that the schismatic pilgrims, who were visiting holy sites in Greece from November 9 through today, under the leadership of “Metropolitans” Simeon Shostasky and Alexander Drabinko, the two bishops who willingly departed from the Body of Christ to join the schismatic OCU, were received by Met. Theoktistos at the monastery on Tuesday, November 12.
The Metropolis also published a number of photos showing that the Greek Metropolitan and his clergy concelebrated with the Ukrainian schismatics.
“Russian clergy and laity who do not recognize the autocephaly granted by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine headed by Metropolitan Epiphany of Kiev will no longer be accepted within the Holy Metropolis of Fokidos” the Metropolitan said during the service.
Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Halkis also permitted the schismatics to celebrate the Liturgy on the island of Evia on November 11. They had previously been prevented from visiting holy sites on the island of Aegina. They also encountered resistance to their visit to the Church of St. Andrew in Patras from the local faithful.
Earlier this month, the Russian Church published a list of metropolises that it cannot bless its faithful to visit, as the hierarchs of those dioceses have already concelebrated with or otherwise recognized the OCU. Fokidos was not yet on the list.
