Some Lithuanian Orthodox priests are planning to appeal to the Patriarch of Constantinople to allow them to switch jurisdictions from the Patriarchate of Moscow.
“We are preparing an appeal right now,” Gintaras Sungaila, one of several Orthodox priests recently suspended from their duties, said after meeting with Vilnius Mayor Remigijus Šimašius on Wednesday.
“There will be a separate appeal from the clergy and national communities and an appeal from the authorities to support us,” he said.
According to Sungaila, seven priests are supporting the appeal, with more expected to join after the process gets underway.
There are about 60 Orthodox priests in Lithuania.
It is not clear how long this process could take, but given the support from the faithful and the authorities, Sungaila expects the Patriarch of Constantinople to accept the Lithuanian priests into the patriarchate soon after he receives the appeal.
Last week, Metropolitan Inokentiy, head of the Lithuanian Orthodox Archdiocese, dismissed Sungaila and two other priests, Vitalijus Mockus and Vitalis Dauparas, from their duties in the Lithuanian Orthodox Church. Sungaila and Dauparas were also suspended from any active ministry within the Church.
The priests said they resigned because they felt “a conflict of conscience” because Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, supports Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine.
Read more: ‘We were told not to talk about war’, says dismissed Lithuanian Orthodox priest
According to Dauparas, moving to the subordination of another Orthodox patriarch is not a split but an internal process in response to “the ideology that unfortunately has gripped the Moscow Patriarchate”.
Earlier this week, Metropolitan Inokentiy accused the three priests of conspiracy, saying that they were making plans “to switch to the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople”.
In October 2018, the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople agreed to recognise the independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
The Lithuanian Orthodox Church, one of Lithuania’s nine traditional religious communities, is a metropolitanate within the Patriarchate of Moscow and All Russia.
Read more: Head of Lithuanian Orthodox Church denies supporting war, accuses priests of conspiracy
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