Patriarch Bartholomew sent two bishops as representatives to a pro-Western church in Ukraine, a move which was seen as anti-Moscow as it effectively declared the Ukrainian church independent from the Russian branch.
Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church called together a Holy Synod in response on Friday and criticised Bartholomew.
Vladimir Legoida, a Russian Orthodox Church spokesman, said the Holy Synod had decided to suspend its participation in all structures chaired or co-chaired by representatives of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
Kirill will now no longer mention Bartholomew in his prayers and they will not conduct services together. Kirill takes a similar view to President Putin on Ukraine, that it should be part of greater Russia and that any separation would be negative to that aim.
In Ukraine, there is a split between the pro-Russsia Moscow Patriarchate and the Kyiv Patriarchate, who split from Moscow in 1992 and consider them Kremlin-supporters.
Bartholomew’s reach-out was towards the pro-Western, Kyiv branch of the Orthodox church, therefore it was seen as a threat to unity between Moscow and Istanbul, where the Archbishop of Constantinople (now Istanbul) is based.
“Essentially this is a breakdown of relations. To take an example from secular life, the decision is roughly equivalent to cutting diplomatic ties,” the Russian…
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