Metropolitan Klemes of Larissa | August 26 / September 8, 2026
a. Ecumenical Solidarity and
Brotherhood
Recently, from July 14 to 17,
2026, a “solidarity mission” of the “World Council of Churches” (WCC) took
place in Kiev, Ukraine. Participants included the WCC General Secretary, Pastor
Rev. Dr. Jerry Pillay, the Moderator of the WCC Central Committee, and others,
as well as the General Secretary of the “Conference of European Churches
(CEC).” It was, therefore, an expanded ecumenical delegation.
Also participating was
Metropolitan Gabriel of Nea Ionia and Philadelphia, “representative of the
Church of Greece,” according to the relevant announcement on his Metropolis’s
website (for an unabridged republication, see Parapolitika.gr, July 20, 2026).
More precisely, however, he participated in his capacity “as a member of the
WCC Central Committee and as a representative of the WCC Commission of the
Churches on International Affairs,” according to a news item published on the
WCC website on July 17, 2026.
The purpose of this ecumenical
visit was “to give practical expression to the solidarity of the Churches and
Christian Confessions with the suffering Ukrainian people, to inform the
delegation about the consequences of the ongoing war, and to strengthen cooperation
with the country’s Churches and institutions for the promotion of peace,
religious freedom, and humanitarian service” (see Parapolitika.gr, July 20,
2026).
On July 15, the ecumenical
delegation met in Kiev (at the Theological Academy) with Mr. Epiphanius,
regarded as Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine, “in his capacity as Chairman
of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (UCCRO),”
and with representatives of this Ukrainian ecumenical council from heterodox
Christianity as well as the country’s other religions. During the meeting, Mr.
Epiphanius informed the members of the ecumenical delegation about the “tragic
consequences of Russian aggression” and the “extensive destruction of churches
and religious buildings.” He also thanked the WCC “for its continued solidarity
and clear support for the Ukrainian people. Special mention was also made of
the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of the ‘All-Ukrainian Council of
Churches and Religious Organizations (UCCRO),’ which constitutes a model of
inter-Christian and interreligious cooperation” (ibid.).
“Metropolitan Gabriel conveyed…
the fraternal good wishes of His Beatitude Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and
the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece, while also expressing the sincere
solidarity and support of the Church of Greece for the suffering Ukrainian
people…” (ibid.).
As for the position of this
representative from Greece, who constituted what was regarded as the “Orthodox
presence” within the ecumenical delegation, he made a more revealing statement
to an ecumenical media outlet concerning the trip to Ukraine, following the
ecumenists’ favored practice of adapting to their audience:
“We had a very profound
spiritual experience… I saw the true fellowship of our churches not in theory
but in practice. I am grateful to God for this experience and to the WCC
General Secretary for this opportunity to strengthen us in Christ’s mission of love,
compassion, and understanding” (see WCC-News, July 17, 2026).
b. Interreligious Event with
Jews in Athens
Opening a parenthesis here, we
refer to this same individual’s recent participation in an interreligious
event in the heart of Athens, to bring into clearer focus the image of the
contemporary ecumenist hierarch, whose experience enables him to participate in
such events and ceremonies “that unite voices, religions, and cultures”!
Specifically, on Sunday, June 7,
2026, the Jewish Community of Athens hosted “the second gathering of the
European Polyverse project—the first interreligious choir in Europe to unite
voices, religions, and cultures! This is an exceptionally important and
pioneering initiative that demonstrates in practice how art can transcend
borders and doctrinal differences, building meaningful bridges of peace in
Europe… In an atmosphere of respect and mutual understanding at Beth Shalom
Synagogue, representatives of religious traditions shared words intended as a
lasting legacy” (referring to the remarks of the President of the Jewish
Community of Athens, Metropolitan Gabriel of Nea Ionia as the representative of
the Archbishop of Athens, the Rabbi of Athens, the “Reverend [female] Pastor
of the Evangelical Parish,” etc.). Metropolitan George of Guinea, of the
Patriarchate of Alexandria, can also be seen in photographs of the event.
The Rabbi of Athens stressed that
“interreligious dialogue is a duty for the well-being of humanity in the
service of God. Jews, Christians, and Muslims can and must work together.”
“A special moment was the first
performance in Greece of the original work ‘Polyverse Echoes,’ which
masterfully interwove melodies and texts from the traditions of Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam” (see the website of the Jewish Community of
Athens, June 12, 2026: “Music as a Bridge of Dialogue, Art, and Coexistence”).
We understand that someone initiated
into the colorful ecumenical puzzle of our age, in which the most disparate
things can be interwoven, not for union and transformation according
to God, but for worldly prosperity and coexistence, can carry out missions
such as the one to Ukraine within his field of expertise. This, it seems, is
how the much-vaunted “Orthodox witness” is understood today: it constitutes not
rebirth in Christ, but mutual accommodation through compromise within an
ecumenist perspective!
c. The “WCC” Unmasked
Returning to the meeting in Kiev
on July 15, we come to the most revealing point from an ecclesiastical and
theological standpoint: Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the Primate of the Uniates (“Greek
Catholics”) of Ukraine, who attended that meeting along with the other
representatives from across the Christian and religious spectrum, formally
called upon the WCC to admit into its fold the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of
Ukraine under Epiphanius, regarded as Metropolitan of Kiev! (See “Romfea,”
July 17, 2026: “Uniate Archbishop: The Autocephalous Church of Ukraine Should
Become a Member of the WCC.”)
Shevchuk maintained that this
“constitutes a necessary practical step in support of the country,” because it
“will ensure a permanent institutional presence for the Ukrainian voice in the
international ecumenical community, allowing the reality of Ukraine to be heard
without intermediaries.” He also expressed gratitude to the WCC for its
solidarity, criticized Moscow for “instrumentalizing religion,” and “made it
clear that freedom of conscience is fully protected in free Ukraine, unlike in
the occupied territories, where Russia systematically suppresses it” (ibid.).
This astonishing news, about
which the lengthy account issued by the Metropolis of Nea Ionia and
Philadelphia says absolutely nothing, raises a reasonable question: could
the so-called Autocephalous Church of Ukraine not submit this request directly
to the WCC itself, according to the prescribed procedure, without needing a
mouthpiece—that is, the assistance and intervention of its “Greek Catholic”
(Uniate) “sister”? Even more astonishing is that the Uniates of Ukraine, like
those of every other geographical region, although they themselves, being
subject to the Vatican, are not members of the WCC in accordance with papal
principles, nevertheless ask that the supposedly Orthodox autocephalists of
their country become members of the WCC! How contradictory and inconsistent is
this?
Perhaps not so much, if we
consider that, from its very establishment by the Phanar in 2019, the
Autocephalous Church of Ukraine immediately hastened to develop with its Uniate
“brothers” in Ukraine a “road map for cooperation and a concrete course
toward unification”! This is why, ever since then, clergy of both bodies
have even gone so far as full liturgical concelebration (!) on various
occasions (see the revealing video: “OCU and OGCC: 7 Steps Toward a New Unia”).
Thus, they regard it as self-evident that they walk together and speak for
one another, identifying with each other! Ecumenism in practice, and the
adoption of Uniatism as a lived reality…
At this point, however, we should
be permitted to take the opportunity to UNMASK the WCC through the writings of
its ecumenist champions from Orthodox backgrounds!
The most serious question that
arises is: What, after all, is this much-vaunted WCC, into which the
Uniates of Ukraine are asking that the Uniatizing autocephalists of Ukraine be
admitted?
An international ecumenical
body for presenting and pursuing geopolitical goals and objectives, yes. It
is indeed such a thing!
Its champions, however, although
they present an idealized version of it, according to their wishes—or, rather,
their imagination—openly admit that within the WCC, among other things,
so-called “ecumenical theology” is cultivated, the “ecumenical spirit”
prevails, and the so-called “international order” is shaped concerning
peace, justice, Christian ethics, respect for creation, etc. (See Fr. Augoustinos
Bairaktaris, “The Nature of the Orthodox Church’s Participation in the WCC—An
Orthodox Historical and Theological View of the Ecumenical Movement,” in the
journal Theologia, 2/2015, p. 261.)
On the basis of what principles?
And toward what ultimate purpose? They tell us: ecclesial unity! Yet they
themselves admit that within the WCC they have not arrived at a commonly
accepted “model of coexistence and unity”! (Ibid., pp. 268–269.) In
practice, as the WCC’s official texts clearly demonstrate, what prevails and is
promoted is the basic Protestant idea that unity among them essentially
exists already, and that it is manifested and becomes visible through their
joint participation and action!
But what is most paradoxical
and irrational? That, fundamentally, the WCC has no clearly
formulated understanding of the “Mystery of the Church,” of WHAT THE CHURCH IS!
And, consequently, of what the boundaries of the Church are and who
is included within it! (Ibid., pp. 275, 283.) They call this as
yet unresolved matter “the ecclesiological question” (ibid., p.
289)!…
Moreover, it has been documented
for decades that it remains unclear and undefined who, ultimately, is
speaking through the WCC’s texts. The WCC itself, which supposedly has no
ecclesiological standing? The “Member Churches”? Some supposed “World Church”?
(Ibid., p. 279.) In other words, WHOM does the WCC ultimately speak
for? Who speaks through it? God? Such a claim would be not merely excessive
but even blasphemous! Confused and divided human beings? This is indeed what
happens, but it makes the WCC a vehicle not of the Spirit of God, but of the
spirit of Babel, of manifest confusion! If, however, it is not the Lord who
speaks, but Babel that prevails, we can understand very well which evil one
lurks behind it and deceives everyone with his WCC-falsehood!
For example, exactly fifty years
after the WCC’s founding in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in 1948—that is, in
1998—ecumenists from Orthodox backgrounds at an “Inter-Orthodox Conference” in
Thessaloniki decided to abstain from many WCC activities ahead of its
Eighth General Assembly, pending a RADICAL RESTRUCTURING that would supposedly
allow for more effective Orthodox participation (ibid., p. 279, footnote
67). To what extent anything of the kind has occurred in the nearly three
decades since then remains a mystery, since manifestly NOTHING substantial has
been done in this regard! Thus, they admitted and continue to admit that the
WCC neither represents their views nor meets their requirements, and they
struggle to make it somehow “accessible” to their participation! Yet they
achieve virtually nothing significant in this regard! Why, then, do they
support it with such frenzy and foolish zeal?
And not only this: on the
contrary, ecumenists from Orthodox backgrounds, in their spiritual blindness,
acknowledge that
● they “respect the
ecclesiological integrity of the other members” (ibid., p. 277),
although they do not accept the full meaning of the term Church as applicable
to them;
● they are moving “toward
recognizing the ecclesial nature of the other Christian churches and
communities” (ibid., p. 287);
● they accept and recognize
the reality of the existence of many Churches that cannot be ignored (ibid.,
p. 290), because the divisions and separations occurred WITHIN the one
Church (ibid., p. 290), and thus an “ecclesiological pluralism” actually
exists (ibid., p. 291). Moreover, the Third Pan-Orthodox
Pre-Conciliar Conference at Chambésy, Geneva, in 1986
● had accepted “the
ontological recognition of all Christian Churches and Confessions,” namely,
the Roman Catholic, Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Reformed, and Oriental
Orthodox (ibid., p. 297).
At this point, we should recall
that in 1975, the then Archbishop of Thyateira and Great Britain, Athenagoras
(Kokkinakis), published an official text in the form of a bilingual book (Greek
and English) entitled “The Thyateira Confession,” prefaced by the
laudatory and unreserved APPROVAL of the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of
Constantinople. On the basis of the “new disposition prevailing today
among Christians,” as well as the “signs of the times,” it establishes the
NEW DOGMA of catering to the times through the dreadful error of ecumenism. For
it holds that the Church has boundaries, which, however, are continually
expanding! It has a door, but no walls! Thus, it recognizes ecclesial standing
and grace in all heretics, whom it includes in the Body of the Church, and
urges joint prayer as well as sacramental intercommunion with them! (See
our work, Saint Philaret of the Russian Diaspora—A Contemporary Ascetic and
Confessor Hierarch [1903–1985], Phyle, Attica, 2015, pp. 85 and 199–209.)
Thus, what was summarized on this
subject at the Pseudo-Council of Kolymbari, Crete, in 2016 was neither sudden
nor unprecedented. It had been taking shape and being cultivated for decades
within the murky and corrupting ecumenist process.
In essence, it is this tragic
state of affairs that the members of the WCC serve, and into which the
Uniatizing autocephalous Ukrainians are hastening to enter, at the proposal of
the Uniate Primate Shevchuk, in order, among other things, to serve their
national interests more effectively. This is their principal and ardent desire…
If all the revealing points set
out above with the utmost brevity constitute a “Witness to Orthodoxy” in the
contemporary world, as the deceitful ecumenists claim at every opportunity,
then words and terms have indeed lost their meaning. It is clear that the
innovators and ecumenists do not serve the Truth and Righteousness of God, but
stubbornly persist in their fallen state as those “estranged from God” (St.
Theodore the Studite, Letter 36, PG 99, 1033), dwelling in “a distant
country.”
At the end of the Book of
Revelation, among those who will not be deemed worthy to enter the Kingdom of
Heaven, into the ineffable beauties of divine Paradise, will be “everyone
who loves and practices falsehood” (22:15)! This category includes not only
those who tell lies, but also those who live and move within falsehood.
Heretics of every kind “practice falsehood,” as victims of the devil, the
father of lies (John 8:44). So too do those who fail to help them return to
the Truth, but instead reassure them in the falsehood of their delusion.
Thus, the ecumenists, sadly, carry out the work of the evil one in the
service of the falsehood that leads to perdition!…
d. Is There Religious Freedom
in Ukraine?
However, there is another major
and serious issue that we must address.
The WCC’s ecumenical mission to Kiev
met with Mr. Viktor Yelensky, Head of Ukraine’s State Service “for
Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS),” and Ms. Olena Kovalska, Deputy
Head of the Office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, receiving
assurances concerning “the protection of the constitutional order and religious
freedom” in Ukraine! (See Parapolitika.gr, July 20, 2026.)
Is this really so? Has none of
them heard of the Ukrainian government’s widely known frenzy of persecution
against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev,
attested by incontrovertible evidence and systematically pursued for years?
The ecumenical delegation wished
to appear to have heard this side as well, and therefore also met with its
representatives to be informed about the effects of the war and—as the
Metropolis of Nea Ionia and Philadelphia “masterfully” puts it—“also about
the difficulties and pressures facing the Church in today’s particularly
complex environment. At the same time, the Church’s positions were
presented concerning the complete severance of all administrative dependence on
the Moscow Patriarchate, as well as Metropolitan Onuphry’s decision to withdraw
from the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. The [ecumenical]
delegation’s meetings with both major Orthodox ecclesial communities in Ukraine
demonstrate the WCC’s steadfast commitment to maintaining open channels of
communication with all sides, serving dialogue, reconciliation, and peace…” (See
Parapolitika.gr, July 20, 2026.)
Do the WCC and Mr. Gabriel really
believe that, with these generalities—which do not even make a simple
reference, however indirect, to the persecution faced by the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church at the hands of the Zelensky regime for its unyielding stance toward
the Phanar’s Autocephalous Church of Ukraine—they are presenting and serving
the truth? Far from it!
This is why a careful and
fair-minded analyst quite rightly wrote the following: Did the WCC, which
supposedly heard both sides, “act as a genuine mediator or as an
institutional endorser of the dominant side?” The latter, of course!
“It is not enough to hear the
persecuted. You must investigate what they report and publicly defend their
rights. Otherwise, a ‘balanced hearing’ becomes a procedural alibi for a
political conclusion already reached… Can [the WCC] speak of reconciliation
without making public even a single complaint from the persecuted community? Can
it defend religious freedom while being content with the assurances of those
accused of restricting it? Can it rightly condemn Moscow’s
instrumentalization of the Church, yet overlook Kiev’s instrumentalization of
religion? Christian truth does not change according to which geopolitical
side violates the rights of the faithful” (see Georgios Apostolakis, “When
the ‘Ecumenical’ Mission Becomes a Geopolitical Delegation,” “The Next Day,”
July 18, 2026).
As for the stance of Metropolitan
Gabriel of Nea Ionia, about which the analyst raises a question, the analyst
himself provides the answer with the phrase “he accepted the final
conclusion without publicly distancing himself from it”—namely, that under
Ukraine’s new legislation there is supposedly “respect for religious freedom
and conscience,” according to the assurances of those in power. This is
something the innovating Church of Greece evidently accepts, since on this
issue it aligns itself with the Phanar’s position, notwithstanding a few
isolated instances of individual dissent.
The analyst’s final conclusion is
clear: “The WCC presented the [Ukrainian] government’s positions and the
meeting with Epiphanius in detail, but left the testimony of the other side
almost invisible. It condemned Russia’s war, but did not condemn coercion in
domestic church affairs with comparable clarity. This is not equal concern; it
is selective sensitivity” (ibid.).
But how could it have been
otherwise? Since the WCC reflects the main currents of the contemporary Western
narrative, what else was it expected to do? The role of the innovating Church
of Greece in this blatant collusion is likewise to serve the interests of
the powers of this world, rather than the Truth of the Church or the just cause
of those who are wronged and persecuted—and indeed to do so through the
WCC, by way of Metropolitan Gabriel of Nea Ionia, as though it could not act on
this particular issue independently, on its own initiative, without ties to
and dependence on the WCC!
In the immediate aftermath of
this ecumenical visit to Kiev, a torrent of events contradicted—and
continues to contradict—the claims of “religious freedom” in Ukraine, conclusively
confirming before the whole world the painful truth that the persecution
extends even to killings and injuries! We evidently have New Martyrs, but woe
to those who collaborate with and shield the executioners!
We quote an excerpt from a recent
interview with Metropolitan Theodosius of Cherkasy, who is among those who have
suffered persecution and harassment at the risk of their very lives, so that we
may understand exactly what is happening and how much responsibility lies with
those who either conceal the truth or deliberately distort it:
“The situation of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church today is the most difficult in its modern history. We
are witnessing an unprecedented combination of legislative, judicial,
administrative, physical, and moral pressure being brought to bear on the
Church and its faithful. Criminal cases have now been opened in Ukraine against
a number of bishops, priests, and laypeople of our Church… We are also
witnessing attempts to strip the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of its legal status…
At the local level, the situation is equally alarming. Cathedrals, parishes,
and monasteries are being seized throughout the country. Members of our Church
are being beaten and intimidated. Elderly people, women, and priests are
suffering serious injuries… Politicians and the media in Ukraine have stirred
up hatred of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church within civil society to such a
degree that merely being a member of it, and all the more a cleric or monk, now
endangers your life. A recent example is the brutal murder of the monk
Barsanuphius in broad daylight within the Sviatogorsk Lavra itself. A group of
individuals in military gear disfigured the monk’s face with a knife and then
shot him in the head. At the same time, they stabbed two other residents of the
Lavra, the monk George and the novice Andrew, and threw them into a ravine,
thinking they were dead… Summing up the above, one can say without exaggeration
that a planned and brutal act of GENOCIDE is now being perpetrated against
Ukraine’s largest religious denomination… A real genocide of millions of
faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is taking place in Ukraine at this
very moment. For anyone in Ukraine, only a blind person could fail to see this,
and only a scoundrel could deny it”! (See “Romfea,” September 7, 2026.)
We bow before the persecuted
faithful of Ukraine and turn away in revulsion from the blind and unscrupulous
members of the WCC’s ecumenist delegation to Kiev, who chose to pass by the
bloodied victim solely to serve extraneous interests dictated by geopolitical
calculations. Their deplorable degradation has nothing whatsoever to do with
Christianity!…
e. Concluding Remarks
The contemporary, alienated way
of thinking of this world, which is far from the true God, is self-serving and
wholly worldly.
The way of thinking of the
various religions may seem tinged with a measure of “spirituality,” but,
deprived of the Truth embodied in the Person of the God-man, our Lord
Jesus Christ, it is rooted in man and unredeemed.
The way of thinking and acting of
heterodox Christians, which predominates in ecumenical organizations such as
the WCC, appears to be inspired to a greater or lesser degree by the Holy
Gospel, yet remains within a man-centered framework, because the fullness of
the Truth, Christ in His fullness, is absent. Unredeemed humanism prevails in
all its expressions and ultimate consequences.
When the so-called Orthodox of
today, instead of acting as “light” and “salt” in this world of suffering and
injustice, align themselves with the coalition of the heterodox and
those who hold false doctrines, supposedly to “strengthen” their voice and
witness, they may appear to gain certain worldly benefits, but in essence they
have lost the prophetic and revelatory power of their mission in defense of
Truth and Justice. This conformity is not pleasing to God and brings no
beneficial results in resolving the problems of Ukraine or of any other region
of this world.
Pleasing the Lord in truth at any
cost and guarding ourselves against the coalition of the lawless is the proper
stance, which saves and draws down divine Mercy upon us individually and
collectively. This is what the word of God proclaims and what we must always
keep before us, so that we do not fall into inexcusable errors, but carry out
whatever humble ministry and mission we have in a manner pleasing to God and
with brotherly love:
“Thy mercy, O Lord, is before
mine eyes, and I have been well-pleasing in Thy truth. I have not sat with the
council of vanity, neither will I enter in with transgressors. I have hated the
assembly of evildoers, and will not sit with the ungodly” (Psalm 25:3–5).
“The Lord is the strength of His
people, and the defender of the salvation of His anointed. Save Thy people, and
shepherd them, and lift them up for ever” (Psalm 27:8–9). Amen!
Greek
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