Bp Irinej of Bačka explained how he relates to the idea of a new meeting in the “Amman format” and why the head of the Phanar refuses to convene a Pan-Orthodox meeting.

The hierarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Bishop Irinej (Bulović) of Bačka, said in an interview to the Belgrade edition “Politika” how to solve the problem of schism in Orthodoxy.

“Talk about overcoming this problem is necessary,” said the hierarch, commenting on recent calls by the Russian and Jerusalem Churches to hold a new meeting in the “Amman format”. “They should be held in different formats, bilateral and multilateral, and the most expedient and fruitful would be a conciliar, pan-Orthodox format.”

However, as stated by Bishop Irinej, the Patriarch of Constantinople refuses to convene a Pan-Orthodox conference for an indefinite period.

According to the hierarch, this is due to the conviction of the head of the Phanar that he “in any case is the first bishop of the Orthodox Church in rank and has the right to act independently in the matters of jurisdiction and autocephaly of Local Churches, without looking back at their opinion, even if this is the opinion of the majority. or generally universal.”

Unfortunately, added the hierarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church, “this rhetoric from the shores of the Bosphorus is too similar to the rhetoric from the banks of the Tiber in Italy”.

“The ‘New Rome’, Constantinople, Tsargrad, today Istanbul, it seems, wants in the ecclesiastical sense to become an exact copy of the ‘old Rome’, moreover, a copy of its papal edition of the second millennium of the Christian era, to which the Orthodox Church led precisely by the Patriarchate of Constantinople, rightly called the ‘Great Church of Christ’, has never agreed before, and, I am convinced, will not agree in the future,” said Bishop Irinej of Bačka.

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that Bishop Irinej named the conditions under which the head of the Phanar can regain the reputation and trust lost after interfering in the church situation in Ukraine.