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Church Crisis: Constantinople Patriarchate’s Synod to meet on October 9-11

The next meeting of the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople will be held next week

ANKARA, October 5. /TASS/. The next meeting of the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople will be held as early as next week, the patriarchate’s press service informed TASS on Friday.

"The Holy Synod’s meeting will be held from October 9 to October 11," the spokesman said.

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When asked to clarify which issues are expected to be considered at the Synod’s meeting, he said, "The agenda of the monthly meetings is never disclosed to the press."

On the other hand, representatives from the Patriarchate of Constantinople earlier made it clear that the decision on granting independence to the Ukrainian Church could be officially announced at that meeting.

On September 7, the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, as part of preparations for providing autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, appointed its exarchs (envoys) in Kiev, which is the Moscow Patriarchate’s canonical territory.

The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church said in response that Constantinople’s actions were a crude violation of church canons and stopped mentioning Patriarch Bartholomew during church services and conducting joint services with Bishops of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

Ukraine today has one canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is a self-governing church constituent of the Moscow Patriarchate. Also, there are two religious organizations not recognized by the Orthodox Christian world - the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.

The Ukrainian authorities have tried to create a Local Orthodox Church independent of the Moscow Patriarchate on numerous occasions since 1991.

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