The Russian Orthodox Church has announced it will break off relations with the Patriarchate of Constantinople in a religious schism driven by political friction between Russia and Ukraine.

The Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church elected on Monday to cut ties with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, which is viewed as the leading authority for the world’s 300 million Orthodox worshippers.

The split is a show of force by Russia after a Ukrainian church was granted independence.

Last week Bartholomew I of Constantinople, the “first among equals” of eastern Orthodox clerics, granted autocephaly (independence) to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which previously answered to Moscow.

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If Monday’s decision is a lasting one, the loss of the powerful and wealthy Russian church will be a serious blow to the global church. It also marks an important new facet for the rift between Russia and Ukraine, who have become bitter enemies since the annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbass.

Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, the Moscow patriarchate’s head of external church relations, announced the Russian church’s decision on Monday and said Russia hoped the Patriarchate of Constantinople would change its mind.

“Until that happens, until all these unlawful decisions made by Constantinople are in force, we won’t be able to communicate with the church which today finds itself in the midst of a schism,” he said, according to reports of his remarks.

The global Orthodox churches collectively represent 300 million people. But there are fewer than 3,000 of the Orthodox faithful in Istanbul.

The Russian Orthodox Church represents a majority of Orthodox Christians and commands huge wealth and power. Its leader, Patriarch Kirill, is closely allied to Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, who he has described as “a miracle of God”.

Rivalry between the Russian church and patriarch of Constantinople has been a feature of eastern Orthodoxy. Kirill has objected to Bartholomew’s close relationship with the Roman Catholic church and Pope Francis.

Ukraine’s government had lobbied strongly for autocephaly as part of a larger break from Russian influence in the country’s affairs.

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“Autocephaly is part of our pro-European and pro-Ukrainian state strategy,” the Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, said in a statement last week. He also called Moscow’s loss of control over the Ukrainian Orthodox Church “the fall of the ‘third Rome’ as the most ancient conceptual claim of Moscow for the global domination”.

Russia’s Orthodox Church already had a tense relationship with the religious authorities in Istanbul.

In the summer of 2016 the first global gathering of the 14 self-governing Orthodox churches since the year 787 almost collapsed before it opened because of disagreements over the agenda. Several churches – including the Russians – threatened to boycott the “holy and great council”, which had been 55 years in the planning.

The Patriarch of Constantinople has sought to repair relations with the Roman Catholic church, which broke from eastern Orthodoxy almost a millennium ago, in 1054.</s>In the largest schism in Orthodox Christianity for over a century, the Russian Orthodox Church has cut all ties with the Constantinople Patriarchate over a "historic" decision to recognise the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as independent.

Metropolitan Hilarion, a bishop in charge of the Russian Orthodox, told journalists that the decision to break relations with the Constantinople Patriarchate was taken by The Holy Synod, the governing body of the Russian Orthodox Church, in Minsk, Belarus on Monday.

In an official declaration, members of the Holy Synod wrote that allowing another church to break away "is tantamount to renouncing its historical roots and commitments" making it "impossible" for the Russian Orthodox Church to continue its union with Constantinople.

The Holy Synod has also urged other Orthodox Churches to properly evaluate a decision taken by Constantinople and to "search for ways out of the gravest crisis that is tearing apart the body of church".

On 15 October, the Istanbul-based leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Ecumenical Patriarch I Bartholomew of Constantinople, took the monumental decision to recognise the full independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, after a three-day Synod.

Speaking at a press conference last Thursday, Ukraine's President Poroshenko dubbed the decision a "historic event" and a "victory of good over evil".

A spokesman for Russian Patriarch Kirill said it "crossed a red line" and is "catastrophic" for the entire Orthodox world.

The split is seen to have a deep political significance. Poroshenko said he the decision was an issue about Ukraine's statehood, national security and global geopolitics.

"This is the collapse of Moscow's centuries-old claims for global domination as the Third Rome," he said. "The independence of our church is part of our pro-European and pro-Ukrainian policies that we've been consistently pursuing over the last four years."

For more than three centuries, Ukraine and Russia have been united in the Russian Orthodox Church.

When it gained independence in 1991 following the fall of the Soviet Union, Ukraine strove to establish religious independence and an Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate was created.

The popularity of the Kiev Patriarchate and calls for Ukraine's independence have increased since Moscow annexed Ukrainian peninsula, Crimea in 2014.

Volodymyr Yermolenko, a Ukrainian writer and director at Internews Ukraine, said the move could create divisions in and beyond Ukraine.

"It's possible some will support Constantinople, while some will turn to Russia. Russia will no longer recognise the Ukrainian Church and only see it as schismatic," he said. "This could increase tensions, even though the whole idea was to end schism in Ukraine, by recognising those who are not willing to be under the Russian Church."

READ MORE: A conflict of faith between Russia and Ukraine

In today's Ukraine, there are three Orthodox Church branches: the Kiev Patriarchate, headed by Metropolitan Filaret, which does not recognise Moscow's authority, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - the largest branch - previously loyal to the Moscow Patriarchate, and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, founded in 1921, in defiance of the Kremlin and forced underground during Soviet rule.

Beginning under then President Boris Yeltsin, and continuing under President Vladimir Putin, the church has seen a massive national revival in its following. It is widely seen as a pillar of the Russian state in its promotion of traditional values.

Many analysts, such as Jakub Junda, a director at the Prague-based think-tank, European Values, consider the Russian Orthodox Church a tool for spreading Russia's influence, and "entails the promotion of Russian nationalist and imperialist ambitions".

It is the largest branch of the Orthodox faith represents half of the world's 200 million or Orthodox believers, including Ukrainian followers, dwarfing the 17 remaining official Orthodox Churches.</s>The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church decided to suspend full communion with the Constantinople Patriarchate, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate said Monday.

"At today's meeting of the Holy Synod, the decision was made to completely stop full communion with the Constantinople Patriarchate. It was a forced decision, but our Holy Synod was unable to make a different decision because the entire logic of the Constantinople Patriarchate's recent actions was leading to this," Metropolitan Hilarion told reporters.

He said the Moscow Patriarchate hopes the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople will change its decision to start granting autocephaly to the non-canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk went on to note that the Russian Orthodox Church expressed hope that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko would keep his promise not to persecute believers of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

"We hope there will be no clashes. We heard assurances from Ukrainian President Poroshenko," he said.

The news comes following the announcement of the Constantinople Patriarchate on Thursday that it would proceed to the granting independence to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, which is currently split into three major churches — the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) of Moscow Patriarchate, the non-canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kiev Patriarchate (UOC-KP), which was created after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the so-called Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.

In addition, Synod announced earlier that it lifted the anathema from the heads of the two non-canonical churches that had been excommunicated by the Russian Orthodox Church for their schism. The Constantinople Patriarchate also revoked its decision to grant Moscow Patriarchate the right to ordain the Metropolitan of Kiev, which dates back to 1686.

In mid-September, two exarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople started working in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate (UOC-KP), which came as part of Constantinople's preparations to grant autocephaly to the UOC-KP.

The initiative has been strongly criticized by the Russian Orthodox Church, which moved on to the actual "breaking of diplomatic relations" with the Patriarchate of Constantinople, suspending service with its hierarchs.</s>Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I (front, center) stands with Orthodox clergy at The Hagia Triada Greek Orthodox church Sept. 2 in Istanbul, during the second day of meetings that led to the patriarch recognizing the identity of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The move led to the Russian Orthodox Church breaking from the Greek Orthodox Church. (OZAN KOSE/AFP/Getty Images)

“The Russian Orthodox Church doesn’t recognize those decisions and won’t fulfill them,” Archbishop Hilarion Alfeyev said in Belarus after a meeting of the synod of the Russian Orthodox Church.

KIEV, Ukraine — The Russian Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow has cut ties with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, claiming his recognition of an independent Orthodox Church in Ukraine departed from Orthodox Christian norms.

Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, who heads foreign relations for the Russian Orthodox Church, said Russian Orthodox leaders decided to “break the Eucharistic communion” in response to actions it called “lawless and canonically void.”

“The Russian Orthodox Church doesn’t recognize those decisions and won’t fulfill them,” Archbishop Hilarion said in Belarus after a meeting of the synod of the Russian Orthodox Church.

“The Church that acknowledged the schismatics has excluded itself from the canonical field of Orthodoxy.”

“We are hoping common sense will prevail and that the Constantinople Patriarchate will change its relations to existing Church reality,” Metropolitan Hilarion said.

Patriarch Bartholomew’s plan to create a single, self-governing Church in the Ukraine, led by its own patriarch, is motivated by a desire to unify the country’s 30 million Orthodox Christians, some observers say. The Russian Church sees the move as an infringement of its jurisdiction and authority.

There are about 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide. The Orthodox Church split from the Latin Church in 1054.

The break comes in response to the decision of Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and the “first among equals” leader of the global Orthodox Church, to issue a statement Oct. 11 confirming plans for an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church and restoring ties with the previously schismatic Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate.

The announcement also removed the traditional right of the Russian Patriarch to ordain the metropolitan of Kiev, a move that observers predicted would be perceived as a deliberate slight to Moscow. The right dated back to a canonical letter first issued in the year 1686.

Archbishop Yevstratiy, chief spokesman for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate and whose rehabilitation by Constantinople contributed to the current break with Moscow, called the Russian synod’s decision a move toward “self-isolation.”

Writing in a Facebook post, he said, “Sooner or later this will be fixed and the Russian Orthodox Church will return to communion.”

According to the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Press Service, Archbishop Yevstratiy claimed that Orthodox Christians must choose whether to follow the Russian Orthodox “into schism” or “remain in unity with the Ecumenical Patriarch (Bartholomew I of Constantinople) through the Local Ukrainian Church.”

Among the backers of Constantinople’s move are Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who is running for re-election in March 2019. He had previously asked the Patriarch of Constantinople to grant independence to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, The Associated Press reported.

While the recent push for an independent, autocephalous Orthodox Church in Ukraine emerged as a serious movement in the 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union, it gained further momentum following the Russian annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014, and Russian backing of separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine in response to the unseating of Ukraine’s pro-Russia former president Viktor Yanukovych.

The Russian Orthodox Church, which claims traditional and canonical authority over the Orthodox community in Ukraine, has denied taking political sides in the conflict and said it has worked for peace in eastern Ukraine.

The Russian Church has also voiced concern that the Constantinople patriarchate’s actions could deepen religious divides in Ukraine and inspire breakaway branches to take over church buildings, Reuters reports.

Kiev, now the capital of Ukraine, is the site of the 988 baptism of Vladimir the Great, the grand prince of Kiev, which resulted in the Christianization of Kyivan Rus’, a state whose heritage Ukraine, Russia and Belarus all claim.

Orthodox Christians in Ukraine have recently been divided into three separate groups.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate effectively declared itself independent from Moscow in 1992, and is considered by the Russian Orthodox to be a schismatic group. Until now, the other Orthodox Churches have recognized Ukraine as under Moscow’s jurisdiction and honored the excommunication.

The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, refounded in 1990, is similarly seen as a breakaway group.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate is under the authority of the Russian Church and has been the officially recognized Orthodox Church in the country.</s>The Russian Orthodox Church has broken all ties with the See of Constantinople, seen as the center of Orthodox faith, though whether it will continue to be seen as such a center is up for debate.

Constantinople's decision to recognize two breakaway Ukrainian churches has cost it the support of the Moscow Patriarchate, the biggest Orthodox Church in the world with the greatest number of adherents. Constantinople has "self-destroyed" as the cornerstone for Orthodoxy worldwide, says the Russian Church's public relations chief.

It may take months, years or even decades to see who comes out on top in the worst religious break-up of modern times, but it is already clear that the consequences will be momentous – and will spill far beyond church politics.

For those not closely following the intricacies of intra-Orthodox relations what exactly happened around the Ukrainian Orthodox Church warrants a short explanation. For those versed in the intricacies of church politics, it's safe to skip to the next section.

There are a number of Orthodox Christian organizations active in Ukraine, all of them called Orthodox Churches with various additional qualifiers. The three most important ones, boasting the largest followings, are: The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.

The latter two used to be non-canonical, or illegitimate, from the point of view of the worldwide Orthodox Church. Last week, the Constantinople Patriarchate, the 'first among equals', granted them autocephaly, recognizing their independent status. In effect that makes them equal to the Russian Orthodox Church (otherwise known as the Moscow Patriarchate).

The Moscow Patriarchate, which had earlier anathemized Kiev Patriarch Filaret, is now up in arms against Constantinople's decision. So much so that it has broken off its relationship with the Orthodox center, creating what is already being described as a schism comparable to the Catholic-Orthodox split of the 11th century.

Will there be blood?

In ages past, when religion was both the cornerstone of secular life and a legitimizer for worldly rulers, splits like this led to rebellions, wars and crusades. In the modern day of secularism and segregation of power, what happens in church is expected to stay in church – but will it?

Worldly leaders in both Russia and Ukraine have unequivocally taken sides in the conflict. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called Constantinople's recognition a "victory over Moscow demons" and the end of Russia's "conceptual bid for world domination." Russian President Vladimir Putin called a security council gathering to address the recognition of the Ukrainian churches.

There will, quite literally, be blood, believes Roman Silantyev, a religious studies professor at the Moscow State Linguistic University.

"Constantinople's actions legitimize repressions against Ukrainian believers faithful to the Moscow Patriarchate," Silantyev told RT. "They will be thrown out of buildings, they will be forced to take part in the All-Ukraine Ecumenical Council, they will be limited in everyday life… they will, simply speaking, be made second-class citizens."

In a more materialistic sense, Russia is now in a position to demand recompense from Constantinople for reversing the 17th-century agreement that put the Ukrainian Church under the Moscow Patriarchate.

"They reversed a centuries-old agreement, and that agreement had earned them gifts and money from the Russian authorities, the Russian authorities can now demand that those gifts and money be returned. It's as if Russia now tore up the papers on the sale of Alaska, America would ask for its money back," Silantyev said.

Experts RT spoke to have questioned the judgment of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.

"Some sort of external or internal forces have influenced Patriarch Bartholomew to take a decision that goes against the very basic principles of the Orthodox faith, and he knows it very well – he knows all the canons and all the rules better than we do," says archpriest Aleksandr Ilyashenko, director of the Orthodox Christianity and the World (http://www.pravmir.com/) web portal.

Professor Silantyev believes it possible that this could spell the end of Bartholomew's primacy.

"I think it's not entirely impossible that Patriarch Bartholomew will be ruled either insane or a heretic, I would bet on the latter. It has happened before. An all-Orthodox council would gather and make that decision."

The Moscow Patriarchate certainly commands enough of a worldwide influence to spar with Constantinople. It has a total of 150 million followers, compared to Constantinople's 5.3mn, or even the Kiev Patriarchate's 7+ million.

But Father Aleksandr is skeptical that Bartholomew can be brought down so simply.



"Firstly, you would have to convene an all-Orthodox council. Secondly, you would need everyone to agree. Thirdly, the council will be obstructed by the forces that started the mess in Ukraine."

Christianity is no stranger to splits and schisms of various scales across the centuries. The one we're seeing now is being compared to the greatest of them all: The East-West Schism of 1054, when the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church went their separate ways.

Back then, the Pope and the Eastern Patriarch declared each other heretics and laid down mutual anathema – which endured for over 900 years and was only lifted in 1965. This time around the Moscow Patriarchate has stopped short of invoking either of those words, only saying Constantinople's teaching (regarding Ukraine) is "false" and its Patriarch's actions "illegal." The ultimate significance of the difference in semantics remains to be seen.

Another major split, this time within the Russian Orthodox Church, came about in the 17th century, 30-odd years before the Kiev Patriarchy became a subordinate of the Moscow church. It had nothing to do with Ukraine, though – instead, it was about a part of Orthodox believers rebelling against then Patriarch Nikon's reforms which aimed to bring Russian rituals closer to the Greek teachings. It led to decades of rebellions and even mass suicides, and to tens of thousands of victims.

Modern history has seen an example that, at first glance, appears to be identical to the current crisis. In 1996, Constantinople recognized the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church, and Moscow broke off its ties with the center. But that split only lasted a few months, and was eventually settled with two parallel Orthodoxies existing in the Baltic state.

Whether it is due to incomparably larger followings (the Estonian church only has about 20 thousand) or to the political minefield that is any discussion about Ukraine and Russia, this time is, in fact, quite different.

READ MORE: Kremlin promises to defend Russian Orthodox Christians in Ukraine

"This is incomparable to Estonia," Father Aleksandr said. Professor Silantyev believes the 1996 split was a mere "business dispute" compared to what could now happen to the Orthodox believers in Ukraine.

"This split could last for decades," Silantyev summarized, although admitting it's hard to tell for certain. We might not even see the end of it at all. "The schism with the Catholics has been around for a millennium now," he mused.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!</s>Officials from the Russian Orthodox Church have announced that the church is severing relations with the Patriarchate of Constantinople, in what is being seen as one of the biggest schisms in Orthodox Christianity in almost a thousand years.

At a synod in Belarus on Monday, Russian Orthodox Church leaders said the church was cutting ties with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the seat of the global spiritual leader for 300 million Orthodox worshippers.

The rupture is a response by the Russian Church over the Constantinople Patriarchate’s decision last week to recognize the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as an independent church -- no longer under the authority of the Moscow Patriarchate, according to church officials.

Bartholomew I of Constantinople, considered the ‘first among equals’ of eastern Orthodoxy’s church leaders, granted what is known as ‘autocephaly’ (self-governance) to the Ukrainian Church, over the fierce objections of Moscow.

Metropolitan Ilarion, the Moscow Patriarchate’s head of external relations, on Tuesday said that in doing so the Constantinople Patriarchate had destroyed its authority and that the Orthodox Church no longer had a single center.

“We now stand before a new church reality: we no longer have a single coordinating center in the Orthodox Church and we must very clearly recognize that,” Ilarion said in a televised interview on Russia’s main state broadcaster, Channel 1.

“The Constantinople Patriarchate liquidated itself as such a center,” he said.

The split marks a historic turning point for the global Orthodox community, but it is the result of the collapse in relations between Russia and Ukraine of the past four years that followed Moscow's seizure of Crimea in 2014 and the subsequent separatist war in eastern Ukraine, which is ongoing.

Ukraine’s government has lobbied for an independent church on the grounds that the Russian Orthodox Church is an instrument of the Kremlin, accusing it of stoking separatist sentiment in eastern Ukraine and of acting on behalf of Russia's intelligence services.

Bartholomew’s decision recognized a Ukrainian church that had sought to break from the Moscow Patriarchate since 1991, when Ukraine gained independence from the Soviet Union. Ukraine’s government hailed the recognition as major step in bringing Ukraine further out of Russian dominion.

“This is a matter of our independence," Ukraine’s president Petro Poroshenko said in a speech celebrating the recognition on October 11. "A matter of our national security. A matter of our statehood. A matter of the entire global geopolitics.”

“This is the fall of the ‘Third Rome’ as the most ancient conceptual claim of Moscow for global domination,” Poroshenko said, referring to a claim made by Russian nationalists for centuries that the country is the heir to the Roman and Byzantine Christian empires. f

The Moscow Patriarchate, however, has denounced the Ukrainian church’s recognition as provoking a split comparable to the so-called ‘Great Schism’ of 1054, when Christianity separated into western and eastern churches.

The Russian church is by far the largest of the world’s Orthodox communities and for most of its centuries-long history has been closely tied to the Russian state. President Vladimir Putin has promoted the church as a key part of modern Russian identity and its leader, Patriarch Kirill, is a close ally of the Russian leader.

The Russian church's breakaway is therefore a major upheaval for global Orthodoxy. The practical implications were still being worked out by ecclesiastical experts on Tuesday, but Russian church officials suggested the most immediate effect would be that its faithful should no longer attend services at churches under the authority of Constantinople. That would include one of the holiest sites in Orthodoxy, the Greek island monastery, Mount Athos.

Archpriest Igor Yakimchuk, the Moscow Patriarchate’s deputy head of external relations, told the Interfax news agency that Russian worshippers visiting those churches, many of which are popular tourist sites in Greece and Turkey, would have to make penance with confession afterwards, but church officials seemed to suggest there is no total ban. Russian Orthodox priests are now forbidden from taking part in services there and would be punished, Yakimchuk said.

The Moscow Patriarchate and Constantinople have had strained relations for some time as Moscow has sought to expand its authority within Orthodoxy. In 2016, Patriarch Kirill met Pope Francis in Cuba, the first time a Russian Orthodox patriarch and a Roman Catholic Pope have done so in 1,000 years -- in what was seen by some experts as a power play by the Russian church.</s>The Russian Orthodox Church said on Monday it had decided to sever all relations with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in protest over its endorsement of Ukraine’s request for an “autocephalous”, or independent, church.

Speaking in Belarus after a meeting of the Russian Church’s ruling body, Metropolitan Ilarion, a cleric, said the Holy Synod had been left with no choice but to sever ties with the Patriarchate in Istanbul, seat of the global spiritual leader of roughly 300 million Orthodox Christians.

Ukraine last week secured approval from Constantinople to establish an independent church in what Kiev said was a vital step against Russian meddling in its affairs, but that the Russian Orthodox Church lamented as the biggest split in Christianity for a thousand years.

“A decision was taken to completely sever ties,” Metropolitan Ilarion told reporters in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, announcing Russian retaliation against Constantinople.

“No other decision could have been taken by our Holy Synod because the logic of all the actions taken recently by the Constantinople Patriarchate led to this.”

The Russian Orthodox Church has compared Ukraine’s moves for independence to the Great Schism of 1054 that split western and eastern Christianity, and warned they could lead to an irreversible rupture in the global Orthodox community.

Ilarion said Constantinople’s decision to back the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s independence drive was illegal and that the Russian Orthodox Church would disregard it.

“We are hoping common sense will prevail and that the Constantinople Patriarchate will change its relations to existing church reality,” he said.

The tussle over Ukraine’s spiritual future flows from the poisoning of relations between Kiev and Moscow after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the outbreak of separatist fighting in Ukraine’s east that has killed over 10,000 people.

The Moscow Patriarchate, which is aligned with the Russian Orthodox Church, long dominated in Ukraine but since the 1991 Soviet break-up has been challenged by a rival known as the Kiev Patriarchate.

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

The Moscow Patriarchate denies its church is a security threat to Ukraine and, far from being a Kremlin stooge, says it has done much to promote peace in the country’s east.</s>MOSCOW (AP) — The Russian Orthodox Church decided Monday to sever ties with the leader of the worldwide Orthodox community after his decision to grant Ukrainian clerics independence from the Moscow Patriarchate.

Metropolitan Hilarion said the Russian church's Holy Synod resolved to "''break the Eucharistic communion" with the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Under the leadership of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the patriarchate last week removed its condemnation of leaders of schismatic Orthodox churches in Ukraine. The decision marked a step toward establishing an ecclesiastically independent - or autocephalous - church in Ukraine.

The Orthodox Church in Ukraine has been under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church since the late 1600s. Calls for the Ukrainian church's independence have increased since Moscow's 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and its support of separatist rebels fighting in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine currently has three Orthodox communities - one answering to the Russian Orthodox Church and two schismatic churches.

Metropolitan Hilarion, who heads the Russian Orthodox Church's foreign relations department, said after the Holy Synod's meeting in Minsk, Belarus on Monday that rupturing ties with the Ecumenical Patriarchate was a response to its "lawless and canonically void moves."

"The Russian Orthodox Church doesn't recognize those decisions and won't fulfill them," he said. "The church that acknowledged the schismatics has excluded itself from the canonical field of the Orthodoxy."

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who is running for re-election in a March vote, has pushed Bartholomew to grant independence to the Ukrainian church.

Ukrainian Orthodox Church Archbishop Yevstratiy denounced the Holy Synod's decision to sever ties with the Orthodox Church leader regarded as a "first among equals" as a move toward "self-isolation."

The Russian church voiced concern that the Istanbul-based patriarchate's action would deepen the religious rift in Ukraine and could spur the schismatic branches to try to take over church buildings.

The Russian Orthodox Church expects Poroshenko to make good on his pledge that the Ukrainian government would ensure respect for the choices of those who want to retain unity with the Russian church.

Yuras Karmanau in Minsk, Belarus contributed to this report.</s>The crisis “tears the body of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church” was the message of the Patriarchate of Moscow to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, following yesterday’s decision of the latter’s Holy Synod to cut off all communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the first-ranking Church in Eastern Orthodoxy.

The move was in response to the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s decision to grant autocephaly (independence) to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, and to return to the canonical order Ukraine bishops who were declared schismatic by Moscow and excommunicated.

Indeed, the Moscow Patriarchate in a statement called upon the leaders of all the local Eastern Orthodox Churches to take a stand on what it views as Constantinople’s “uncanonical decisions”.

The statement says that the actions of the Patriarchate of Constantinople placed it outside the terrain of the canonical order, and rendered impossible the Eucharistic communion.

“The return to the canonical order of schismatic [clergymen] excommunicated by another Local Church, along with all the ‘bishops’ and ‘clergymen’ ordained by them, constitutes encroachment on the canonical territory of another Church, rejecting the obligations and historical decisions, and places the Patriarchate of Constantinople outside the terrain of the canonical order,” the statement said.

“Until such time that the Patriarchate of Constantinople annuls the aforementioned decisions, the clergy of the Orthodox Church of Russia will not be allowed to co-celebrate [church services] with clergy of the Church of Constantinople, and the faithful cannot participate in the sacraments conducted in its churches. The Holy Synod called upon the Primates and Holy Synods of Local Churches to evaluate the uncanonical actions of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, in order to jointly seek the exit from this weighty crisis that tears the body of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.”

A lengthier statement by the Moscow Patriarchate begins as follows:

“With profound pain the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church has taken the report of the Patriarchate of Constantinople published on October 11, 2018, about the following decisions of the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople: confirming the intention ‘to grant autocephaly to the Ukrainian Church; opening a ‘stauropegion’ of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in Kiev; ‘restoring in the rank of bishop or priest’ the leaders of the Ukrainian schism and their followers and ‘returning their faithful to church communion’; ‘recalling the 1686 patent of the Patriarchate of Constantinople on the transfer of the Metropolis of Kiev to the Moscow Patriarchate as its part.”

“These unlawful decisions of the Synod were adopted by the Church of Constantinople unilaterally, ignoring the appeals of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the plenitude of the Russian Orthodox Church as well as sister Local Orthodox Churches, their primates and hierarchs to hold a pan-Orthodox discussion of the issue.”

The Ecumenical Patriarchate has not as yet issued a response.</s>The Russian Orthodox Church has formally cut all ties with the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul:

In the biggest rift in modern Orthodox history, the Russian Orthodox Church has cut all ties with the Constantinople Patriarchate, effectively splitting from it after it granted independence to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The Holy Synod, the governing body of the Russian Orthodox Church, has ruled that any further clerical relations with Constantinople are impossible, Metropolitan Hilarion, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church’s External Relations Department, told journalists, de facto announcing the breaking of relations between the two churches.

The move comes days after the Synod of the Constantinople Patriarchate decided to eventually grant ‘autocephaly’ to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, thus making the clerical organization, which earlier enjoyed broad autonomy within the Moscow Patriarchate, fully independent. The move taken by Moscow arguably marks the greatest split in the history of the Orthodox Church since the Great Schism of 1054, which separated Catholics and Orthodox Christians, as it involves a break of communion between the biggest existing Orthodox Church – the Moscow Patriarchate – and the Constantinople Patriarch, who is widely regarded as a spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, even though his status is nothing like that of the Pope in the Catholic Church.

Writing in the Catholic Herald a couple of weeks ago, Father Mark Drew gave a backgrounder on the historical and ecclesiological issues in play.

These are very deep waters. My natural sympathies lie with the Russians here, but I don’t know enough about the details to offer an informed opinion. I welcome your commentary in the comments thread — but please, be civil.
The Russian Orthodox Church announces it will break communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople over Eastern Orthodox Church official plans to recognize the autocephaly of two Ukrainian Orthodox Churches. Moscow says it hopes Constantinople will change its mind to avoid this schism. This marks an important new aspect in the rift between Russia and Ukraine.