Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew instensified his pressure on local churches in Europe after he had achieved a success in forcing the Church of Greece to recognize the non-canonical Orthodox Church of Ukraine. (It was created in late 2018 in the framework of the joint effort of the Kiev government, the United States and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew)
On October 15, the Ecumenical Patriarch attended the proceedings of the annual General Assembly of the International Organization “Forum 2000” where he gave a speech entitled “Recovering the promise of 1989”. The Ecumenical Patriarch was accompanied by Metropolitan Emmanuel of France and Metropolitan Arsenios of Austria. The leader of Constantinople were also set to hold a series of meetings with representatives of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia.
Earlier, Metropolitan Rastislav, the Primate of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia, declared that his Local Church supports the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchy) and stands against any split within the Orthodox World.
Some experts believe that the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia may become a new target of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew’s campaign in support of his non-canonical project in Ukraine. By these actions, Constantinople is attempting to rescue its investments in this effort and secure the crumbling influence across the Orthodox World. However, in fact, they lead to a further split within local churches over the so-called Ukraine question.