The Lithuanian Orthodox Church has condemned Russia’s war on Ukraine and may now be facing a disciplinary response from the Moscow Patriarchate under whose jurisdiction it falls.
Earlier in March, Innokentiy, the Archbishop of Vilnius and Lithuania, released a statement, distancing himself from Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill’s support for Vladimir Putin.
Read more: Lithuanian Orthodox Church condemns Russia’s war on Ukraine
“The position of the Orthodox Church in Lithuania remains unchanged: we strongly condemn Russia’s war against Ukraine and pray to the Lord to bring it to an end as soon as possible,” said the head of Lithuanian Orthodox Christians. “Patriarch Kirill and I have different political views and perceptions of current events. His political statements about the war in Ukraine are his personal opinion. We in Lithuania do not agree with this.”
Following the statement, the Synod of the Moscow Patriarchate created a new body, the Executive Board for the Near Abroad, according to a report by Bernardinai.lt. The “near abroad” is a term used in Russia to refer to former Soviet republics.
According to Bernardinai.lt, the new body may be intended to tighten the grip on the Archdiocese of Vilnius and Lithuania.
Vitalijus Mockus, chancellor of the Lithuanian Orthodox Archdiocese, has told LRT.lt that church leadership learned about the new structure from the media.
“It is too early to comment as the structure is in place, but there are no rules of procedure yet, only a manager has been appointed. From what analogies we know, it is simply a coordinating board, maybe an information board [...] to collect information in the archdioceses that belong to the Moscow Patriarchate. But we cannot speculate, we do not have any information, nor do we have the working rules of that board,” he said.
According to Mockus, Lithuania’s Orthodox Christians are not too worried about Moscow trying to impose its will more strongly.
“Our status remains unchanged; we are de facto an ordinary diocese, living our own inner life. We govern ourselves internally according to the laws of the Republic of Lithuania and the canons of our Church. We do not see any danger so far,” he said.
Officially, the Moscow Patriarchate reacted to Archbishop Innkokentiy’s criticism with silence.
“No one informed us, no one called us, there was no response, not even to the archbishop’s appeal, negative or positive [...] They could have called, they could have told us, and now we, like you, have found out everything from the media and we are living in peace. Nobody is threatening us, pressuring us, or, by the way, praising us. So far there is nothing,” he said.
Archbishop Innokentiy will not be making any more comments on the matter, he insisted.
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