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World Council of Churches says will not interfere in Moscow-Constantinople dispute

The WCC Communication director said the organization's policy was to abstain from comments on the issue

GENEVA, October 17. /TASS/. The World Council of Churches will not interfere into the affairs of the Moscow and Constantinople patriarchates and will not comment on their relations, WCC Communication director Marianne Ejdersten has told TASS.

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"We are not able to comment on at this stage - that’s the policy of the WCC. And we are not going to interfere in the work of member churches," she said.

Ejdersten added that all questions about relations between the Moscow and Constantinople patriarchates should be referred directly to them.

In response to Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko’s request for granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople on October 11 declared it canceled the decision of 1686 that placed the Kiev metropolitan diocese under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. Also, Constantinople announced its return to the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch. Besides, it lifted anathema from the heads of two non-canonical churches in Ukraine - Filaret, of the Kiev Patriarchate, and Makary, of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church. The Russian Orthodox Church declared these decisions as uncanonical and unlawful. The Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church on October 15 ruled it was no longer possible to have eucharistic relations with Constantinople.

Founded in 1948 in Amsterdam, the WCC is an ecumenical organization that unites 359 Christian churches from more than a hundred of countries, which collectively represent over 500 million believers. Its headquarters are located in Geneva.

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