Filaret: We were enticed and cheated, Tomos worked harm

Head of the UOC KP Filaret Denisenko. Photo: Facebook

The leader of the UOC KP Filaret Denisenko believes that the contents of Tomos speaks about the dependence of the new church on the Patriarchate of Constantinople. He said about it in an interview with the Ukrainian Radio.

“We were tricked. We were granted the Tomos on autocephaly, but we were enticed because in fact the Tomos enshrines dependence of the Ukrainian church on the Patriarchate of Constantinople,” Filaret said. “At the Council on December 15, we were not shown the contents of the Tomos. If I had known the contents, which were found out only on January 6, 2019, we would have refused it.”

Moreover, Filaret, the head of the UOC KP, is sure that with the arrival of the Tomos it only got worse: “Tomos misled us. It split the Kiev Patriarchate into parts. This Tomos did not so much good as harm.”

The Patriarch announced that he was convening the Local Council of the UOC KP to approve the structure independent of both Moscow and Constantinople: “At first it will be small, but this Kiev Patriarchate is certain to grow again to become a large one. Because the Ukrainian people demand an independent church.”

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that at the forum of the Ukrainian intelligentsia “For the Ukrainian Orthodox Church! For the Kiev Patriarchate! ”, which took place on June 11, 2019 in Kiev, Filaret declared that he did not accept the Tomos.

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