Moscow, January 16, 2017
On January 12, 2017, representatives of the schismatic and unrecognized “Kiev Patriarchate” met with members of the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Patriarch Bartholomew’s official Phanar residence, according to the schismatics’ site.
General Secretary of the Holy Synod Metropolitan Bartholomew of Smyrna and Metropolitan Emmanuel of France, members of the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s synodal commission for the question of Ukrainian Orthodox autocephaly, met with the Ukrainian delegation.
Both sides exchanged views on the current state of Orthodoxy in Ukraine during the long meeting, with the “Kiev Patriarchate” representatives stressing their “church’s” official recognition of the decisions of June 2016’s Crete Council assembled by the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
Metropolitans Bartholomew and Emmanuel underlined the complexity of the Ukrainian question, but that His All Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew will make every effort to find the best solution to the problem.
In their turn, the members of the schismatic delegation expressed the hope that the Mother Church would do everything possible to ensure that its decisions would be adopted as soon as possible.
