Arcibiskup Rastislav

Metropolitan Rastislav (secular name Ondrej Gont; born 25 January 1978) is the current Metropolitan of the Czech Lands and Slovakia and the Primate of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia. His full title is His Beautitude Rastislav, Archbishop of Prešov, Metropolitan of the Czech Lands and Slovakia.

Early life He finished his elementary eight-year school in 1992 and the grammar school in 1996 in his hometown. In 2002, he received his Master of Theology degree from the Orthodox Theological Faculty of Prešov University in Prešov. He defended his diploma thesis on "The Mystery of Death" .

During the 5th year of theology faculty he completed a four-month study stay at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece. During his studies he stayed in the monastery of St. Thessalonians and entrusted to the spiritual care of Archimandrite Ireneos (Charalambakis). He spent two weeks in the monastery of St. Dionysius of Olympia and one week at the Mount Athos, where he visited several monasteries.

In 9 December 2013, he replaced Archbishop Simeon as the Metropolitan Administrator, who, however, declared that his replacement was invalid. Simeon's opinion is shared by the majority of Orthodox Churches in the world. For this reason, Archbishop Rastislav was proclaimed by the Ecumenical Patriarchate as persona non grata. Simeon refused to recognize the church assembly, which elected Archbishop Rastislav in Prešov on 11 January 2014 by the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia. The Church's unlawful acts, began with the controversial dismissal of Archbishop Simeon and continued with the unlawful appointment of Lord Jáchym Postoj to Bishops Rastislav, Jáchym and Juraj, as expressed by Patriarch Bartholomew in an official letter to the Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic.

After his alleged election, Archbishop Rastislav was not invited to the Synaxis of the Heads of the Orthodox Churches, which is a manifestation of his non-recognition and thus the isolation of the Czech and Slovak Orthodox Church from the rest of the Orthodox world.

The constitution of the Orthodox Church governs the election of bishops and metropolitans. According to the constitution, the proposal of the council, approved by the Sacred Synod of Canonical Capability, and then the election by the eparchial assembly, by a majority of two-thirds, is required for the establishment of a bishop. No other way is permitted by the constitution. The election of the metropolitan is carried out by the Orthodox Church from two candidates - the Archbishop of Prague and the Archbishop of Prešov. In the case of the election of Archbishop Rastislav, the illegitimate archbishop of Prague, Jáchym, was illegally appointed by a Synod composed of 3 people, while Jáchym also voted in his own favor, which makes him elected by his own choice, making the choice of the metropolitan illegal.

This issue is theoretically addressed by various authors, and extensive analysis is available. Archbishop Rastislav is considered by many not to be the legitimate primate of the Czech and Slovak Orthodox Church, except for some such as Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, the Orthodox Church in America, and the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch. Rastislav was even titled as the "Archbishop of Prague" when congratulated by the Patriarchate of Antioch regarding his election. Furthermore, according to the tomos of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, Archbishop Rastislav is no longer a canonical bishop. This issue has been addressed by the Canadian Commission of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which, among other things, is responsible for preparing documents for bishops' tribunals.