Bartholomew-Ieronymos meeting canceled - The background of the rift

According to Romfea.gr, the meeting between the two Hierarchs scheduled for the morning of Friday 8 was canceled, as announced by Fanari.

It is reminded that Patriarch Bartholomew is in Athens, and on Thursday morning visited fire ravaged Mati, where 99 people died. However, besides the Patriarch, Archbishop Ieronymos was absent, confirming the breach in the relations between the two men.

Information from iefimerida.gr indicates that the initiative to cancel tomorrow's meeting belongs to the Archbishop of Athens.

Officially, according to the director of the Press and Communication Office of the Archdiocese of Athens, Haris Konidaris, whom news agency AMNA invokes, the meeting was postponed "due to the workload of the Holy Synod of the Hierarchy", which is called on Friday, to elect the new Metropolitan of Larissa.

However, the harsh resentment of the Hierarchy is known, with the continuous interventions in the Greek Church by Bartholomew, which led to the decision of the Archdiocese of Athens for Mr. Ieronymos, not to accompany the Patriarch in any of the events to be held in Athens, as happened in Mati. The Archbishop of Athens was also absent on Thursday night at the Ecumenical Patriarch's award ceremony by the Greek Parliament and his proclamation as a lifelong, honorary president of the Constantinopolitan Association.

It is clear that the recent decision of the Council of State on the Propona Legacy Church also played a part in the cancellation of the meeting. The court vindiucated the Ecumenical Patriarchate, a decision over which the Hierarchy had objections because of behind the scenes machinations by the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

The Prompona case, of course, was just the fuse as relations between the Archbishop and  Bartholomew have long been tense.

Indicatively, the following cases are mentioned:

The controversy over the so-called "New Countries" (churches north of Larissa), which Phanari is seeking to integrate in the Patriarchate
The intention of the Ecumenical Patriarch to open a church in the center of Athens, Kolonaki.
The intervention of the Ecumenical Patriarch to elect the Metropolitan of Ioannina. When his candidate losthe appointed his candidate the Metropolitan of Adrianople Amphilochio, as representative of the Patriarch in Athens.
The behind the scenes dealings of Metropolitan of Adrianople, Amphilochios, with intense underground processes and interventions, of course, annoyed by the Archbishop of Athens who considers Amphilochios "persona non grata".
Older hierarchs of Athens, however, emphasize that this is not the first time that Phanari is at odds with the Church of Greece, reminding that the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew had imposed non communiation (not to be confused with excommunication) on the late Archbishop of Athens and all Greece Christodoulos, and had removed him from the Book of the Church .