Moscow, November 2, 2024.
On November 2, 2024, the chairman of the Synodal Department for Relations between the Church and Society and the Media, V.R. Legoida. Legoyda made a comment for journalists in connection with the decision of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church to retire Metropolitan Hilarion of Donetsk and Mariupol:
"On October 31, 2024, a Statement on behalf of a number of bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was published in social networks and on some private Internet resources in connection with the decision of the Holy Synod on the retirement of Metropolitan Hilarion of Donetsk and Mariupol.
The above-mentioned statement questions the legality of this decision and demands to cancel it.
In this regard, I would like to clarify that decisions on the order of management of dioceses in the dioceses of the Republic of Moldova and the Republic of Moldova have been taken on the basis of the decision of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Moldova. In the territories of Donbas and Novorossiya, decisions are taken by the Holy See of the Russian Orthodox Church under special conditions of military action, when the course of church life urgently requires such decisions.
The outstanding merits of His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion in organizing the life of the Church in the land of Donetsk, in building many churches, in educating and ordaining numerous clergy are beyond any doubt and are duly noted in the synodal decree. However, the current situation in the region, where fighting is going on and people are dying every day, dictates the need for change.
The precedent for resolving such situations is Decree No. 362 of November 7/20, 1920 by St. Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow, the Holy Synod and the Supreme Church Council.
The entire Russian Orthodox Church prays for the deliverance of the bishops, clerics, monastics and laity of Ukraine from the evil persecution, expressed in the arrest and unjust trials of the clergy and laity faithful to Orthodoxy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, in physical aggression and false propaganda against them, in the forceful seizure of monasteries and churches."
