The conduct of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, striving to dominate over all of the Orthodox Churches, presents a problem for the organization of the Pan-Orthodox Council summit, according to His Eminence Hilarion, Metropolitan of Eastern America & New York, First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR), in an interview with RIA Novosti.

“Holding a Pan-Orthodox Summit would be most desirable,” Metropolitan Hilarion said, “however, the Patriarchate of Constantinople has its own vision of Orthodox unity, and this is a problem for all local Churches.”

According to His Eminence, the Greek Church claims that the Patriarch of Constantinople holds the dominant position in the whole of the Orthodox world.

The previous Pan-Orthodox summit was held in Greece in 2016, with ten local Churches attending. However, the Russian, the Antiochian, the Bulgarian, and the Georgian Orthodox Churches were not present at the event.

The relations between Constantinople and the Russian Orthodox Church deteriorated in 2018 as a result of the setting up of the so-called “Orthodox Church of Ukraine”, which was done on the initiative of the president of Ukraine, and Bartholomew, the Patriarch of Constantinople.