Greek theologian: “Autocephaly is indefinite, and its temporary deprivation is canonically unreasonable”

According to Anastasius Vavouskos, the theologian of the Church of Hellas, the threats to deprive the Russian Orthodox Church of autocephaly for five years are canonically unfounded.

The Phanar, in his opinion, cannot interfere in the internal affairs of the Russian Church. In addition, “the granting of autocephalous status is carried out indefinitely, and not for a fixed period.”

Greek theologian, according to the publication “Romfeya”stated that the threats to deprive the Russian Orthodox Church of autocephaly for a period of five years are canonically unfounded:

“Autocephaly should not be granted on the condition that the new Church respect the limits of its canonical jurisdiction.”

And the “conditions” put forward, Vavouskos believes, “represent the necessary circumstances for the canonical functioning of the new Church, which is the internal affair of each Church and an integral element of its independence”:

“And only if the Church itself, realizing the impossibility of its canonical functioning, asks for the intervention of the Mother Church, then the latter intervenes in accordance with the canonical provisions in force in order to help eliminate the dysfunction. In this light, therefore, there is no place for the Ecumenical Patriarchate to interfere in the internal affairs of the Moscow Patriarchate, especially when there are no such internal problems of dysfunction in the Russian Church.”

Vavouskos also noted that the proposal to deprive the autocephalous status of the Moscow Patriarchate for a certain period (5 years) “not only has no canonical validity, but also leads to a violation of the relevant canonical provisions.” In addition, the question arises: “Why should it be five years, and not three or six?”, writes life expectancy.

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