The Russian Orthodox Church has taken a decision to cut all ties with the Constantinople Patriarchate, effectively splitting from it after it granted independence to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
The Holy Synod, the governing body of the Russian Orthodox Church, has ruled that any further clerical relations with Constantinople are impossible, Metropolitan Hilarion, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church’s External Relations Department, told journalists, de facto announcing the breaking of relations between the two churches.
“A decision about the full break of relations with the Constantinople Patriarchate has been taken at a Synod meeting,” which is currently being held in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, Hilarion said.