Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople: A Carpetbagger, Imposter and Profiteer

Joseph Stalin, who started the Holodomor that killed millions of Ukrainian people, had a saying “An obliging fool is worse than an enemy”. The current Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is not only trying to match this definition but is also doing his best to add his own incentive to it.

Since the very day when Ukraine became independent, it has been crystal clear that the Moscow church has to go. Nevertheless, it should have happened naturally, so the laymen had enough time to realize these priests did not belong. This turn-in the fate of millions of Ukrainian believers should have happened gradually and what is more important peacefully.

But this unique chance has been lost for the blatant incompetence and greed of the Phanar elder.

Before the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP) obtained the Tomos of Autocephaly granted by Bartholomew, The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) had 12,000 parishes compared against only 3, 000 run by the Kyiv Patriarchate. The Moscow had five thousand monks and the Kyiv only two hundred….

The UOC-KP emerged in 1992 through the actions of Metropolitan Filaret, the former Primate UOC-MP and the bishops of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church who were supported by the leadership of independent Ukraine.

The UOC-KP say its history started from the Kiev Metropolitanate, a part the Constantinople Orthodox Church, and the church denies its transfer under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarch that took place in 1686.

When on October 11, 2018, the Constantinople Patriarchate Holy Synod confirmed its intention to “grant autocephaly to the Ukrainian Church” that cancelled the 1686 cathedral charter of the Constantinople Patriarchate concerning the transfer of the Kiev Metropolis to the Moscow Patriarchate, the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s website in Theological and Other Studies published the rationale for this decision. That was a historical essay entitled The Ecumenical See and the Church of Ukraine.

The essay said that what happened in 1686 was just a “temporary decision” made due to “particular circumstances” that did not give Moscow the authority over the canonical territory of the Kiev Metropolitanate. And since the times have changed, and the Ecumenical Patriarchate has only restored their rights to Ukraine.

But is it what REALLY happened then?

The 1686 transfer was decided by the Ottoman Vizier in response to a request from the Russian Ambassador. The issue was resolved between the states, not between churches and there are a lot of documents to confirm that.

The Vizier, who was a Muslim, ordered the then Constantinople Patriarch Dionysius to fulfill the request of the Ambassador and sign all the necessary documents, which he did as did his Synod. In other words, from the middle of the 15th century the Ecumenical Patriarchate have been in foreign captivity and remain so until the present day.

THEY ARE NOT INDEPENDENT IN THEIR DEEDS!

Not only that. The facts are Dionysius got from the Russian Ambassador 200 gold pieces and 120 sables. Patriarch Dositheus of Jerusalem also received 200 gold pieces for the deed. In a letter, Dionysius asked the Russian Tsar to send a stipend to all the bishops of the Synod who had signed on the cession letter.

Therefore, the Kiev Metropolitanate was made a part of the Moscow Patriarchate by order of the blasphemous authorities of the Ottoman Empire. They and the Russian Tsars and the Moscow toyed with the Constantinople Patriarch and the three other Eastern Patriarchs the way they wanted to. For example, Patriarch Parthenios IV of Constantinople (1667–1684) had five patriarchates in different times, Patriarch Jacob (1681–1688) had only three, and Patriarch Dionysius IV (1682–1695), who gave in the Kiev Metropolitanate, again had five patriarchates.

In the 20th century, the Phanar continued satisfying the interests of non-Orthodox believers, so when the Greeks were defeated in 1922, the Patriarchate was almost expelled from Istanbul and only retained its traditional seat at the cost of complete submission to the Turkish will.

This deal soon began an unprecedented expansion in order to make the “Ecumenical” title real and convert Istanbul into a kind of Eastern Vatican subjugating all other Orthodox congregations. In 1922, Meletios (Metaxakis) elected a new Constantinople Patriarch issued a tomos giving himself power to administer all Orthodox parishes, without exception, in Europe, America, and elsewhere. Soon Meletios organized the Pan-Orthodox Council in Istanbul that granted the “Ecumenical” Patriarch extraordinary rights. According to the Coulcil’s Regulation, the Patriarch convened the Council, appointed its time and place, presided over it, directed the course of discussions, giving (or not giving) the floor to the members of the Council as “no one may speak without first seeking and receiving the Patriarch’s permission”. The decisions made by the Council were arranged as patriarchal letters to be sent to every Orthodox church, whose priests were considered as nothing but silent enforcers of the will of the Phanar impostors.

Meanwhile, the Church of Constantinople did not and does not have any right to impose its rule on autocephalous Orthodox churches, since more than half of its parishioners live in North America. The numerous offences committed by the Phanar hierarchs, including Bartholomew himself, is an apparent evidence they have been preparing a new union with the Vatican for their craving to subdue to the Roman throne and betray Orthodoxy is in their blood.

The Faner signed its first union with Rome at the Council of Ferrara-Florence (1438–1445) that approved by all the invited clerics and laymen except for St. Mark of Ephesus, the steadfast fighter against heresy. In 1453, when Constantinople fell and the Byzantine Empire ceased its existence, the patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem became subordinate to the one taking the patriarchal throne in Istanbul.

Taking advantage of their position, many Constantinople patriarchs committed the abuses of power unprecedented for the Church. Patriarch Cyril I Lucaris (1620–1638) tried to impose Protestant doctrine on the Orthodox Church. Then, in the middle of the 18th century, the Patriarchate approved the Ottomans to disband the Patriarchate of Peche (Serbia) and the Autocephalous Archbishopric of Orchid in Macedonia that was established in the time of St. Justinian the Great. In the 20th century, Patriarch Meletius IV cancelled the autonomy of the Greek Archbishopric in the United States thus provoking schism in both American and Greek Orthodoxy. In 1923, having conveyed the Pan-Orthodox Congress participated by only five Orthodox Local Churches, he introduced the new liturgical style that later gave rise to the “Old Style” schism. Later, Meletius IV embraced the schismatic anti-church groups in Estonia. He supported “militant Hellenism”, so after Turkey’s victory in the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922 and the conclusion of the 1923 Lausanne Peace Treaty almost two million Greek-speaking flock were expelled from Asia Minor.

The entire history of the Constantinople Patriarchate says they have never abhorred to repeatedly violate the Orthodox canon. So, In November 2020, the Pope and Bartholomew announced a united Eucharist, and on the 30th of November when celebrating the feast of St. Andrew, there were no representatives of the Local Churches at the festive liturgy in Phanar but a delegation from the Vatican.

Currently, the Constantinople Patriarchate includes the most numerous American Archbishopric, the Archbishoprics of Australia, Thyatira (Great Britain, the Republic of Ireland, and Malta) other Western European countries, and those of South America and Asia. In all, they include 3,196 parishes of which 1,376 are in North America, 1,047 in Greece and Turkey, 528 in Europe, 195 in Asia and Oceania, 50 in South America. These are approximately over 5 million parishioners (2.8 million in North America, 1.5 million in Europe, 800,000 in Asia/Oceania, 150,000 in Latin America, 5,000 in Turkey), which is just three times less if compered to the 11, 000 parishes of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine. If to follow the way they think of it, these people are hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue. A pretty tidbit of cash Bartholomew’s greedy hands are reaching out to. And they’ve got a death grip on it.

That the reason why at the meeting of the Holy Synod on November 27–29, 2018, Bartholomew completely stripped the Kiev Patriarchate of its autonomy to replace the man appointed from Moscow by his own guy to drain on Ukrainians’ pockets.

IS THAT WHAT OUR NATION DESERVE? IS THAT WHAT WE ARE DIYING FOR?

Now, there is no Patriarch in Kyiv but only Metropolitan Epiphanius. The status of our Church has been reduced, and it no longer has a right to guide the Ukrainians living abroad. This has been passed to Patriarch Bartholomew as all the donations given to the Church. We have been deprived of the right to canonize our saints. From now one they are judged in Istanbul. That is Istanbul we have to turn to find our great martyrs. Is this not the greatest humiliation?

UOC jurisdiction has been limited to the territory of Ukraine, we cannot appoint bishops or establish parishes abroad. But what should Ukrainians who have found themselves in foreign countries after the Russan invasion do? Join other churches and betray their faith?

The Constantinople has taken many churches in Kiev and throughout Ukraine despite most of Orthodox Churches have spoken out against Bartholomew’s vulture-like actions. Archbishop Gabriel of Montreal and Canada called it “…a tragic event and blatant lawlessness on the part of Patriarch Bartholomew. And one must not believe that he acted on his own. No, he was helped by the West who had been behind the coup-de-eta in Ukraine that had provoked hatred for everything Russian, and now it has spread to the Church”. Even Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has long become suspicious and indignant about Patriarch Bartholomew whom he suspects was personally involved in the 2016 failed military coup.

Bartholomew’s last escapade was the Peace Summit in Switzerland where he signed the final declaration as a Turkey’s representative, having no right to do so as it was confirmed by the official representative of the Turkey’s Foreign Ministry Öncü Keçeli who said the Greek Patriarchate of Istanbul had been illegally added as a signatory. Since June, Bartholomew has been prohibited to engage in political activities and Turkey does not recognize the “ecumenical” status of the Constantinople Church, which, as per the Lausanne Peace Treaty of 1923, is limited only to conducting services for Greeks living in the country.

Bartholomew is a carpetbagger, imposter and profiteer backed by Istanbul. He has fooled Ukrainians and taken our Church. THE TIME HAS COME TO RECLAIM WHAT IS OURS!