Lawsuit Filed In Turkey Over Attempt To Give Independence To Ukrainian Orthodox Church

As reported yesterday by UrduPoint, in Turkey, the Patriarchate of Constantinople has taken steps to grant independent status to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, purporting to remove it from the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate, and to remove the anathema from the leaders of two other separatist Orthodox churches in Ukraine.  The Kiev archdiocese was transferred to the Moscow Patriarchate in 1686.  In response, the Turkish Orthodox Church has filed a lawsuit contending that under the Lausanne Peace Treaty of 1923, the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople is limited to religious services of the Greeks living in Turkey.  According to a follow-up article in UrduPoint, the Russian Orthodox Church charges that the move by Constantinople was engineered by the United States and other Western countries to create tension between Kiev and Moscow. In response to Constinople's action, the Russian Orthodox Church has cancelled its Eucharistic communion with the Constantinople Patriarchate.