TALLINN, Estonia –Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the Archbishop of Constantinople and leader of the Eastern Orthodox Communion, has labeled same-sex relationships as “reprehensible,” sinful, and said they will never be accepted by the Orthodox Church.

In a sermon delivered Saturday at the Cathedral of St. Symeon in Tallinn, Estonia, the Archbishop said the Church “condemned” gay relationships, and said same-sex cohabitation and marriage is a “contemporary invention” that is “the result of sin and not the law of joy”.

He also called marriage equality “cancerous” and warned it creates “disorders, agitations, dissensions, schisms, and heresies.”

The statement is designed to call upon the Estonian government not to proceed in legalizing the cohabitation between people of the same sex and gay marriage, which are currently being considered.

The Archbishop is the spiritual leader of 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide.

Article continues below

He is visiting Estonia to oversee celebrations for the 90th anniversary since the declaration of the Estonian Church as Autonomous by the Mother Church of Constantinople.

The Orthodox Church in Russia has been particularly vocal against LGBT rights and in it’s campaigning for the recently passed federal law banning so called “homosexual propaganda.”