Moscow Patriarchate warns Ieronymos over Kiev

Moscow Patriarchate spokesman Vladimir Legoyda has warned that the Russian Orthodox Church will cut off links with any Greek hierarch who commemorates the Metropolitan Epiphanius of Kiev, including Archbishop Ieronymos.

The Ukrainian Church was granted independence from Moscow by the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios earlier this year, in a decision that was fiercely opposed by the Russian Church.

According to an official statement on Thursday, the Moscow Patriarchate threatened to erase the name of Ieronymos from its diptychs.

The statement also said that the Russian Synod disagrees with the recent position expressed by Ieronymos that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has always remained within the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of “the Mother Church – the Ecumenical Patriarchate.”

It added that Russian Patriarch Kirill has accused Ieronymos of toeing the line of Vartholomaios.