Patriarch Kirill alluded to a global conspiracy against Orthodox Christianity as the cause of the ongoing rift between his church and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople during an annual religious conference in Moscow.

The stakes are very high, and the incentive to destroy the unity of the Church has a global dimension. It’s not a fight over jurisdiction. It’s a fight against the only powerful Orthodox force in the world.

The Russian Christian leader added that Orthodox Christianity served as an “island of freedom” standing against values and ideas forced upon mankind by globalism.

The allegation came as the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church was commenting on the possibility of healing a rift with Constantinople. The two Orthodox Churches are no longer in a spiritual communion after the Russian Church broke ties with its Istanbul-based counterpart. The move was in response to Constantinople revoking a 1686 decision, which acknowledged Moscow’s authority to appoint the Metropolitan of Kiev and all Ukraine.

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