MOSCOW: September 14, 2018
JOURNALS of a Meeting of the Holy Synod of the Moscow Patriarchate on September 14, 2018

On September 14, 2018, an extraordinary session of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Moscow Patriarchate took place in the Patriarchal and Synodal Residence at Danilov Monastery in Moscow.

The permanent members of the Holy Synod are Metropolitan Onufry of Kiev and All Ukraine; Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna; Metropolitan Vladimir of Kishinev and All Moldova; Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan, head of the Metropolitan area in the Republic of Kazakhstan; Metropolitan Vikenty of Tashkent and Uzbekistan, head of the Metropolitan area of Central Asia; Metropolitan Varsonofy of St. Petersburg and Ladoga, chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchate; Metropolitan Pavel of Minsk and Zaslavsk, Patriarchal Exarch for All Belarus; and Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Department for External Church Relations.

Summoned for the winter session (September-February) are Metropolitan Luka of Zaporozhye and Melitopol, Metropolitan Sergy of Barnaul and Altai, Bishop Lazar of Narva and Prichudye, Bishop Veniamin of Rybinsk and Danilov, and Bishop Nikolai of Nakhodka and Preobrazheniye.

JOURNAL No. 69

DELIBERATED: on responsive actions in connection with the appointment by the Patriarch of Constantinople of his “exarchs” to Kiev within the framework of a decision made by the Synod of this Church “on the granting of autocephalous status to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.”

Background:

The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, in its statement of September 8, 2018, expressed its decisive objection in connection with the anti-canonical appointment of Archbishop Daniel of Pamphilia and Bishop Ilarion of Edmonton as “exarchs” of the Constantinople Patriarchate to Kiev and announced counter-measures which will follow in the near future.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church also condemned the appointment of “exarchs” of the Constantinople Church, deeming it “a gross violation of the canonical territory of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church” (statement by the Department of External Church Relations of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of 7 September 2018).

DECREED:

To cease the prayerful commemoration of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople during divine services.
To cease concelebration with hierarchs of the Constantinople Patriarchate.
To suspend the participation of the Russian Orthodox Church in all Hierarchal meetings, theological dialogs, multi-lateral commissions and other structure in which representatives of the Constantinople Patriarch are chairmen or co-chairmen.
To accept the statement of the Holy Synod in connection with the anti-canonical actions of the Constantinople Patriarchate in Ukraine.

JOURNAL No. 70

DETLIBERATED on the lifting up of prayers in all churches of the Russian Orthodox Church for the unity of Holy Orthodox Christianity.

DECREED: To include in the litany of fervent supplication during every Divine Liturgy in all churches of the Russian Orthodox Church the following petition:

Again we pray to our Lord and Saviour, that He might preserve the Orthodox Church throughout the world in unity and piety, and grant unto Her peace and tranquility, love and accord, let us all say, O Lord, hearken and have mercy.

Again we pray, that He might look down upon the Holy Orthodox Church with kind-heartedness and mercy, and preserve Her from divisions and schisms, from enmity and strife, that Her unity might be neither diminished nor shaken, but that in Her Thy Thrice-Holy name might be glorified, let us all say, O Lord, hearken and have mercy.

Press Service of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.