Nikolaos Mannis: Can the Church of Russia Establish an Exarchate in Greece?

October 19, 2026

 

 

This year marks five years since the establishment of an Exarchate of the Moscow Patriarchate in Africa, following numerous petitions submitted by clergymen of the Patriarchate of Alexandria who refused to accept their Primate’s decision to recognize the false church of Epiphanius Dumenko.

Given that the Church of Greece, under Archbishop Ieronymos, has also recognized the aforementioned false church, is it possible that the Moscow Patriarchate might establish an Exarchate here as well? In other words, can one Local Church establish an Exarchate within the territory of another Local Church, or does this constitute an uncanonical intrusion, known in the terminology of ecclesiastical law as eispidisis, namely, the violation of the boundaries of a canonical jurisdiction?

If a Local Church falls into heresy or schism, then any other Local Church that remains Orthodox and has the ability to intervene is not only permitted but obliged to do so in an exarchal capacity, in order to uphold Orthodoxy until its restoration.

This is demonstrated by ecclesiastical history itself, through the following illustrative examples:

a. Exarchate of the Church of Constantinople in the Territory of the Church of Rome (1577–1797)

Beginning with Gabriel Severos, the see of the Metropolis of Philadelphia was transferred to Venice, where it remained until the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797. For two centuries, each successive Metropolitan of Philadelphia, residing in Venice, shepherded the Orthodox Christians of the city and other regions of Italy as Exarch, Representative, and Locum Tenens of the Patriarch of Constantinople (see Ioannis Veloudis, Chrysobulls and Letters of the Ecumenical Patriarchs Pertaining to the Most Reverend Metropolitans of Philadelphia and Patriarchal Exarchs, Venice, 1873), because the Church of Rome had separated from the Orthodox Church and fallen into heresy.

b. Exarchate of the Church of Alexandria in the Territory of the Church of Constantinople (1594–1597, 1600–1601)

Because, at that time, almost all the hierarchs of the Metropolis of Kiev (which still belonged ecclesiastically to the Patriarchate of Constantinople and politically to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth) were preparing to submit to the Pope of Rome, the Patriarch of Alexandria, Saint Meletios Pegas, appointed Saint Cyril Loukaris (†1638) as his Exarch to support the Orthodox Christians who opposed the Uniate plans of their bishops. Loukaris organized the Orthodox resistance (initially in Vilna and subsequently in Brest, Leontopolis, and Ostrog) and participated in the Council of Brest (1596) as the representative of the Patriarch of Alexandria. The Council, presided over by Saint Nikephoros Parasches, Exarch of Constantinople, condemned the apostate hierarchs (Andrzej Borkowski, The Struggle of the Orthodox Patriarchates Against the Union in Poland..., Athens, 2008).

In both of the above cases, there was a need to provide pastoral care or support to Orthodox Christians who, because they did not wish to submit to heretical or schismatic hierarchs or accept their unlawful actions, appealed to other Local Churches for assistance.

For this reason, I believe that if a sufficient number of petitions are submitted by clergy and laity in Greece (whether by those who are already not administratively subject to the Church of Greece because of the introduction of the new calendar, or by those who disagree with the recognition of the Ukrainian false church), then it will be very likely that an Exarchate of the Moscow Patriarchate will be established here as well, despite the possibility that such a development might lead to persecution of those who join it, as maintained by those who believe that genuine democracy and freedom do not exist in Greece.

As for those sensitive “canonists” who might attempt to characterize such an action as an “uncanonical intrusion,” I would suggest that they direct their sensitivity toward a case that truly constitutes an uncanonical intrusion, involving an Exarchate of the Church of Constantinople in the territory of the Church of Alexandria. I am referring to the “Patriarchal Exarchate of Malta,” which “was established by a Patriarchal and Synodal Tome on January 14, 2021,” and “comprises the islands of Malta, Gozo, Comino, and the surrounding islets, and is under the direct jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate” (https://ec-patr.org/entities/patriarhiki-eksarxia-melitis/).

However, “Libya, that is, Marmarica, Cyrenaica, and Tripolitania, together with Melite (Malta), which was dependent on it, and the neighboring islands of Gaulos (Gozo) and Cyme (Comino), were subject to the Patriarchate of Alexandria through the Egyptian Diocese” (Georgios Skalieris, The Patriarchate of Alexandria, Athens, 1927, p. 10).

Specifically, the “Bishopric of the Island of Melite” (that is, Malta and its surrounding islets) belonged to the Province of Byzacena or Byzantis (Tunisia), whose metropolitan see was Carthage, and was one of its sixteen bishoprics (ibid., pp. 26–27; and Makarios Tillyrides, The Patriarchate of the Great City of Alexandria, 1998, p. 115).

 

Greek source: https://krufo-sxoleio.blogspot.com/2026/10/blog-post_19.html

(Also published—with revisions to the language and accentuation—in the newspaper Orthodoxos Typos, No. 2608, October 16, 2026.)