OCU "hierarch": Decision for diaspora to go under Phanar not fulfilled

“Metropolitan” Ioasaph Shibaev of the OCU

Foreign parishes of the UOC KP will not transfer to the Constantinople Patriarchate, said OCU "Metropolitan" Joasaph Shibaev in his open Address entitled "I cannot stay silent!". The Address is published on the official website of the UOC KP.

“I, as a representative of the diaspora, asked Archbishop Eustraty at the Bishops’ Council: Is that true that the diaspora goes under the Ecumenical Patriarch? To which I received the answer: Vladyka, you (referring to parishes, the OCU, which are in the diaspora) will not be affected,” writes Shibaev. “Metropolitan Dimitry added – according to rumours from the negotiators (Metropolitan Epiphany and Archbishop Eustraty), the diaspora issue was resolved in such a way: although the Statute has this requirement (the diaspora should go under the Ecumenical Patriarch), but in fact this requirement will not be fulfilled—the diaspora will remain in the Church with full rights.”

Earlier, Eustraty Zoria said that despite the provisions of the Tomos, there is no point in forcing the UOC KP communities abroad to transfer to the jurisdiction of the Constantinople Patriarchate.

Also, the "Patriarch of all Rus-Ukraine" Filaret said that the "hierarchs" and the flock of the Kiev Patriarchate abroad themselves do not want to go under the jurisdiction of the Phanar.

We recall that the text of the Tomos does not allow the OCU to have communities outside Ukraine, and the existing ones should transfer to the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Read also