Ecumenical Patriarch takes in more Moscow Rejects: Five Priests of the MP in Lithuania Taken Under the EP’s Omophor AFTER Their Deposition
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has taken five deposed priests of the Moscow Patriarchate in Lithuania on the grounds that they were not canonically deposed and that the real reason that they were removed was their opposition to the ongoing fratricidal war between Russia and Ukraine, sponsored by NATO.
While OrthodoxTimes indicates that they were received “months ago,” the article was dated February 17, 2023 NS.
The Ecumenical Patriarch has taken a proactive role in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, where the largest body, the autonomous Ukrainian Church in communion with the Moscow Patriarchate, has recently been made illegal, with the state recognizing the uncanonical “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” created by the Ecumenical Patriarich’s fiat. There is evidence that US State Department paid as much as $25M to encourage the creation of this uncanonical body to the Patriarchate, and the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s representative body in America at the highest levels maintains ties with operatives of the Deep State in the U.S.
Nor would this the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s first foray into invading Moscow’s dioceses: the new “Slavic Vicariate” of the Patriarchate in in the US is maintained by vicar Alexander Belya, yet another deposed priest of the Moscow Patriarchate.