Moscow. September 14. INTERFAX – members of the Moscow Synod, called the decision of the Constantinople Patriarchate on the re-legalization of marriage for clergy a violation of the canons.

“Special grief caused in the Russian Orthodox Church, the recent decision of the Holy Synod of the Church of Constantinople about the permissibility of remarriage for clergy. This decision is a violation of the Holy canons, ( … ), violates the pan-Orthodox consent and is actually a rejection of the outcome of the Cretan Cathedral of 2016, the recognition of which the Patriarchate of Constantinople as actively seeking from the other local Churches”, – reads the statement of the Synod, adopted on Friday.

The bishops noted that over the past “unilateral actions and statements” of Patriarch Bartholomew are “alien to the Orthodox ecclesiological notions.”

The authors recalled that recently, speaking before a meeting of hierarchs of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, Patriarch Bartholomew argued that Christianity cannot exist without the “Ecumenical Patriarchate” that “for Orthodoxy, the Ecumenical Patriarchate is the leaven that “leaveneth the whole lump” of the Church and of history.”

“These statements are difficult to evaluate, as an attempt to rebuild the Orthodox ecclesiology on the Roman Catholic model,” say the bishops of the Russian Church.