On this day in 1924, St. Patriarch Tikhon sent a rebuttal to the Ecumenical Patriarchate regarding its interference in the life of the Russian Church. During the Ottoman rule, the Ecumenical Patriarch received access to finances and power that it did not enjoy under the Roman reign. The sultans often preferred strict Orthodox patriarchs over “the Western-leaning,” knowing that Orthodox Christians would not plot behind their backs with Westerners (although they may plot along with the Russians). Since the Greek revolution in 1821, the Church of Greece has ministered to the Greek diaspora in America. The Ecumenical Patriarchate remained confined to the limits of the Ottoman Empire. With the collapse of the Sublime Ottoman State in 1922 and the defeat of the Greek invasion of Turkish Asia Minor in the same year, the Ecumenical Patriarchate lost most of its flock in the newly founded republic of Turkey. As a result of these changes, the patriarchate became an international entity. In the same year, the Ecumenical Patriarch Meletios (Metaxakis) arranged the transfer of pastoral care for Greeks in America from the Church of Greece to the Ecumenical Patriarchate. In 1922, the Renovationist schism began in Russia. The Ecumenical Patriarchate suggested that it may act as an arbiter between Patriarch Tikhon and renovationists. In response to this interference, Holy Patriarch Tikhon wrote: “We were quite confused and surprised that (…) the head of the Church of Constantinople, without any prior communication with Us, as the legal representative and head of the entire Russian Orthodox Church, interferes in the internal life and affairs of the autocephalous Russian Church. The Holy Councils (see the 2nd and 3rd Canons of the Second Ecumenical Council, etc.) always recognized only the primacy of honor for the Bishop of Constantinople. Still, they did not and do not recognize the primacy of power for him. (...) The [Russian] people are not with schismatics but with their legitimate and Orthodox Patriarch." So, what happened in Ukraine in 2018 has references in the recent past.
Source: Monk Benjamin (Gomarteli), “Letopis’ tserkovnykh sobytii nachinaia s 1917 goda” [Timeline of Church Events Beginning with 1917] Part I: 1917-1927. | 
