Russian Orthodox Church

Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomeos derided the Patriarchate of Moscow over its decision to cut off communion with the Church of Constantinople, which is the first ranking church in Eastern Orthodoxy.

Health Minister Vasilis Kikilias and Athens University Medical School Professor of Epidemiology Sotiris Tsiodras met today with the 12-member Permanent Holy Synod to persuade the Orthodox Church of Greece to join the state's massive vaccination push to build a wall of immunity by the end of August.

The Orthodox Church in Russia has urged women to refrain from abortions and instead give their children to church institutions.

"Give birth to the child and hand it over to us, the Church, and we will do everything we can to raise it and get it on its feet," the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, said Patriarch Kirill, said in a video address.

However, a closer look shows that Putin and Erdogan both see the Ecumenical Patriarchate as an extension of Western influence that threatens their respective political ambitions.

Ukraine as catalyst of Moscow's fury

Orthodox church in Moscow, Russia, 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE/YURI KOCHETKOV

The Cypriot Orthodox Church's top decision-making body on Wednesday backed the Archbishop's move to effectively recognize the new Ukrainian Orthodox Church's independence, overturning an earlier position of neutrality on the thorny issue.

The Orthodox Church in Moldova has denounced the potential use of a vaccine against COVID-19, calling it a satanic plan to microchip people, or introduce other foreign devices into the human body.

This is stated in the epistle of the Patriarch and the Synod published on the website of the Moscow Patriarchate.

The Ukrainian Church is independent of the religious administration of Moscow.
In a statement after the meeting in the Moscow Patriarchate, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church stated that it could not, from now on, mention the name of Patriarch Theodore II in his prayers and participate in common prayers.

In a sign of continued deep rifts in the Orthodox Church, a Serbian bishop had condemned the Patriarch of Constantinople, the nominal head of the Church, for mentioning the head of the disputed Orthodox Church in Ukraine in a service.

Moscow Patriarchate spokesman Vladimir Legoyda has warned that the Russian Orthodox Church will cut off links with any Greek hierarch who commemorates the Metropolitan Epiphanius of Kiev, including Archbishop Ieronymos.