Moscow has aggressively reacted to news from Istanbul regarding the autocephaly of the Ukrainian church.
The Kremlin sees the decision of Constantinople as the legalization of a split in the world of Orthodoxy, the Ukrainian TV news service TSN has said.
The Russian Church threatens to sever ties with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, while the Moscow Patriarchate threatens to impose an anathema on him.
As UNIAN reported earlier, the Ecumenical Patriarchate said on October 11 it continued the procedure of granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, as stated in the decision made at the meeting of the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate decided to reinstate the canonical status of the Primates of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP) Filaret (Denysenko) and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) Makariy, or Macarius (Maletych).