UOC KP expects from Phanar canonical rehabilitation of "patriarch" Filaret

Head of the UOC KP Filaret and Yevstratiy Zoria

Without a positive consideration by Phanar of "patriarch" Filaret’s appeal on the removal of anathema from him, the Tomos issue cannot be resolved, says the spokesman of the UOC KP Yevstratiy Zoria on his Facebook page.

According to Zoria, the appeal was filed to the Patriarch of Constantinople by Filaret after the Council of Bishops of 1992, where he was "defrocked". Since then, the text of the appeal has been amended and at the moment contains the position of "Filaret concerning all issues requiring the decision of the Ecumenical Patriarch".

The spokesman of the UOC KP reported that the appeal and the question of Tomos will be consistently considered at the forthcoming session of the Holy Synod of the Constantinople Patriarchate.

"The expected result is the canonical rehabilitation of Patriarch Filaret, which means the recognition of the invalidity and inconsistency with the canons of the 'condemnation' procedure by the Council of Bishops in 1992 and, consequently, recognizing the decisions on 'defrocking' and 'excommunication from the Church through anathematizing' null and void."

The spokesman of the UOC KP stressed that it was not a question of suspending Moscow's decisions, but "they will be recognized from the moment they were made null and void and as such that do not have canonical consequences."

Earlier, Yevstratiy Zoria stated that "without rejecting the Moscow anathema, there is no other way on the part of Constantinople to recognize Ukrainian bishops who are outside the MP".

On June 11, 1992, the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church decided to "defrock Metropolitan Filaret (Denisenko), depriving him of all holy orders and all the rights associated with staying in the clergy". In 1997, at the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in the St. Daniel Monastery in Moscow, Filaret was excommunicated and anathematized. This decision was recognized by other Local Orthodox Churches.

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