The Russian Church and the Patriarchate of Constantinople: Topical Issues of Relations

Abstract

The article examines the problem of the relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Patriarchate of Constantinople. An assessment is given to the hypothesis that the Patriarchate of Constantinople is only a tool for promoting American political interests in the canonical territory of the Moscow Patriarchate. The author proceeds from the fact that the reason for the invasion of Constantinople in the canonical territory of the Russian orthodox Church, which led to the rupture of eucharistic communion between the Russian Orthodox Church and Constantinople Orthodox Church, is rooted in the peculiarities of the ecclesiology of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Historical examples of the interaction between the Patriarchate of Constantinople and political forces hostile to Orthodoxy are given, from which it can be concluded that the achievement of their own goals, the most essential of which is the strengthening of primacy among Orthodox churches, is set higher by the Patriarchate of Constantinople than the preservation of the unity of Orthodoxy. An assumption is made about the possibility of the infl uence exerted by the Patriarchate of Constantinople on the Russian Orthodox Church through the laity and clergy being in sympathy with the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The article analyzes the foundation of the Lithuanian Diocese of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which tends to form a long-term threat of new schisms in the canonical territory of the Russian Orthodox Church, primarily in Belarus. It is noted that the foundation of the Lithuanian Diocese of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and the granting of the Tomos of Autocephaly to the non-canonical Orthodox Church of Ukraine, both are constituents of a single long-term strategy to drive the Russian Orthodox Church out of territories that were parts of the Metropolis of Kyiv of the Patriarchate of Constantinople up to 1686.