Metropolitan Hilarion, head of the Department for External Relations of the Patriarchate of Moscow, told the press that Moscow’s Patriarchate’s reply to this “last illegal deed of the Patriarch of Constantinople” will be given at a meeting of the Holy Synod in Minsk on 15th October. As relayed by Russian news agency Interfax, Metropolitan Hilarion also commented on the announcement made yesterday by the Holy Synod of Constantinople. “Such decision – he said – was to be expected. All of the rationale behind Constantinople’s behaviour since April has led to it: the canons of the Church have been trampled on, unity within the Orthodox world has been disrupted, the invasion of the Patriarchate of Constantinople into the canonical boundaries of the Russian Church has become official”.