The Ecumenical Patriarchate reacts after the accusations launched by Russian espionage against Bartholomew: “Insults and fabricated information”

The Ecumenical Patriarchate “expresses its deep sadness” over the attack launched against Patriarch Bartholomew by Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).

The Orthodox Church of Constantinople, also known as the Ecumenical Patriarchate, is considered the highest canonical authority in the Christian Orthodox world. It is headed by the Ecumenical Patriarch, who has the status of primus inter pares (“first among equals”) among Orthodox bishops around the world. The current Ecumenical Patriarch is, since 1991, Bartholomew I, Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome.

The Ecumenical Patriarchate speaks in a reaction broadcast on Tuesday about “a new Russian attack […] launched by the state services of the country” and emphasizes that “phantasmagoric scenarios, fake news, insults and fabricated information do not discourage the Patriarchate from continuing its work and its ecumenical mission”, reports the Greek daily Kathimerini, quoted by Rador Radio Romania.

The statement of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in detail:

• “The Mother Church of Constantinople – Mother of the Church of Russia – expresses its deepest sadness for the new Russian attack on the person of His Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, an attack launched, this time, by the country's state services.
• Since 2018, when the Ecumenical Patriarchate decided to grant the status of autocephaly to the Church of Ukraine, the Mother Church has avoided commenting on the countless similar attacks that have come from both political and ecclesiastical centers and figures in Russia. He does the same today.
• Fantasmagoric scenarios, fake news, insults and information fabricated by all kinds of propagandists do not deter the Ecumenical Patriarchate from continuing its work and its ecumenical mission,” concludes the statement of the Patriarchate.

What Russian espionage claimed

Kathimerini recalls that the SVR claimed in a statement that the goal of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew “is the 'removal' of the Russian Orthodox Church – with the support of the British services”. “British secret services are actively supporting him, fueling Russophobic sentiments in European countries,” the SVR said, describing the Ecumenical Patriarch as the “antichrist.”

Patriarch Bartholomew “found common ground with the authorities of the Baltic states, in an attempt to sow discord in the Russian Orthodox world,” states another part of the SVR statement.

“The Ecumenical Patriarch relies on his ideological allies, represented by local nationalists and neo-Nazis, in an attempt to separate the Orthodox Churches of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia from the Patriarchate of Moscow, turning their priests and believers into religious puppets of Constantinople,” SVR added.

The Russian service even claimed that in Eastern Europe, Bartholomew “also aims to undermine the autonomous Serbian Orthodox Church”.

Strained relationships

Strained relations between the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Russian Orthodox Church came to an open rupture in 2018, following Bartholomew's decision to grant autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, revoking the 1686 letter granting the Moscow Patriarchate jurisdiction over the historic Church of Kiev and all of Russia.

On Epiphany, the head of the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which follows the Gregorian calendar, traveled to Constantinople to celebrate the anniversary of autocephaly with Bartholomew.

Instead, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate, celebrated Christmas on January 7, following the Julian calendar.

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow: “Russia is the spiritual rival of Western civilization”

On the same day, Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Church declared in a televised interview that Russia is a “spiritual rival of Western civilization”, saying: “We do not accept what is commonly accepted today in the West under the slogan of human rights, which in reality aims to destroy human morality. (…) If someone violates the moral contract of society, there is a term that suits him: he is a traitor to the Motherland, with all the legal consequences that will come from faced”.