Kyiv Metropolis Between War and Canons.Guest: Archbishop Elpidophoros of America скачать в хорошем качестве

Kyiv Metropolis Between War and Canons.Guest: Archbishop Elpidophoros of America

In the new episode of the YouTube channel “VICHE,” we speak with Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, one of the leading hierarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. We talk about Russia’s war against Ukraine and about how the Russian Orthodox Church has publicly blessed this war as a holy war. We also discuss the recent and highly controversial statement by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service directed against Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, and where the moral and theological limits of church rhetoric lie today. A central focus of the conversation is the canonical status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church after the Council in Feofania, and the possibility of a so-called “third way” — a temporary pastoral bridge between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, aimed at healing divisions and moving toward future unity. We also address the wider context: the aggressive push of the Russian Orthodox Church for dominance within global Orthodoxy; its actions on the canonical territories of other Patriarchates; the persecution of Ukrainian clergy in the occupied territories; and the crucial question of whether the Ecumenical Patriarch has real instruments of influence — and what, in reality, can stop the moral and spiritual degradation of the Church when it becomes fused with the political ideology of the “Russian world.” This is not only a conversation about canons and jurisdictions. It is a conversation about conscience, responsibility, and whether Orthodoxy can remain faithful to the Gospel in a time of war.