{"id":47766,"date":"2022-05-12T23:16:58","date_gmt":"2022-05-12T21:16:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fosfanariou.gr\/?p=47766"},"modified":"2022-05-12T23:17:02","modified_gmt":"2022-05-12T21:17:02","slug":"ioannis-chryssavgis-gia-orthodoxia-ston-polemo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fosfanariou.gr\/index.php\/2022\/05\/12\/ioannis-chryssavgis-gia-orthodoxia-ston-polemo\/","title":{"rendered":"\u039f \u03c0. \u0399\u03c9\u03ac\u03bd\u03bd\u03b7\u03c2 \u03a7\u03c1\u03c5\u03c3\u03b1\u03c5\u03b3\u03ae\u03c2 \u03b3\u03b9\u03b1 \u03c4\u03b7\u03bd \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03ac\u03c3\u03c4\u03b1\u03c3\u03b7 \u03c4\u03b7\u03c2 \u039f\u03c1\u03b8\u03bf\u03b4\u03bf\u03be\u03af\u03b1\u03c2 “\u03b5\u03bd \u03c0\u03bf\u03bb\u03ad\u03bc\u03c9”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

HAVE WE HIT ROCK BOTTOM?
REFLECTIONS OF A NOT-SO-INNOCENT BYSTANDER<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

by Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Pre-Assembly
Image: Orthodox World Council of Churches pre-assembly meeting (Russian Orthodox Church Department for External Church Relations)<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There are very few occasions in our lives\u2014critical, pivotal events\u2014that are truly life-shattering. We Orthodox describe them as kairos<\/em> moments. World War II was one of these. In my lifetime, there was 9\/11. Institutions and individuals are defined by such moments. We might recall how the Roman Catholic Church failed to stand up to Mussolini and Hitler; thankfully there was the selflessness of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his staunch resistance to Nazi dictatorship. Or we might remember the hostility and conspiracy spawned by the attack on the Twin Towers; thankfully there was the selflessness of first responders and sacrifice of those whose lives are memorialized at Ground Zero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among these moments, I would include the invasion of Russia in Ukraine\u2014arguably a life-changing moment for the autocephalous churches that comprise global Orthodox Christianity. The recent meeting between Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church and Patriarch Porfirije<\/a> of the Serbian Orthodox Church\u2014where the latter was thanked for supporting victims of a war blessed by the former\u2014was exasperatingly hypocritical and shameful. More than anything else, the episode is representative of the present decline of the Orthodox Church as an institution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And just as I thought that Orthodox bishops could stoop no lower, Patriarch Kirill dug his primatial staff deeper and exacerbated his ideological immorality, looking every inch the \u201cPutin altar boy\u201d that Pope Francis warned him about. How embarrassing for us all that Patriarch Kirill is now being considered for EU and US sanctions as a Putin oligarch. It doesn\u2019t quite help his cause that his loudest supporter is Hungary\u2019s Prime Minister Orban. For Patriarch Kirill, Russia is the perpetual victim; everyone else is to blame: the West and Ukraine, the Phanar and Vatican, the US and UN, NATO and LGBTQ. It\u2019s not always easy to understand how to connect the dots of this \u201cmartyrdom,\u201d but somehow President Putin and Patriarch Kirill do so quite seamlessly. I would expect this of a political bully; but should we not expect more of an Orthodox patriarch?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do we interpret the fact that so many of our bishops continue with life inside and outside the church as though nothing is happening in Ukraine? For instance, how does a senior prelate like Patriarch Kirill serve and raise the chalice with the blood of Christ at the altar of a church conceived by a military general and dedicated to the armed forces, boasting frescoes with heavenly and earthly warriors as well as medieval and modern battles? Or how does an ordained bishop like Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev attend a meeting in Cyprus for an Orthodox pre-assembly meeting of the World Council of Churches<\/a> to discuss \u201cdialogue\u201d and \u201creconciliation\u201d with blood on his hands? In fact, how does any Orthodox hierarch passively tolerate the bloodshed Ukraine? An overwhelming majority of bishops remain silent about more carnage than those they savagely point fingers at for abortions. How many dioceses, monasteries, and seminaries look the other way, even as they revel in blood money from \u201cthe potter\u2019s field\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How have Orthodox leaders responded in the more than two months since Russia\u2019s brutal and unprovoked assault on Ukraine?<\/p>\n\n\n\n