Filaret: Two UOC bishops in OCU is not unification but a mere formality

Epiphany Dumenko and "hierarchs" of the OCU Simeon and Alexander

The head of the UOC KP stated that the thesis about the global unification of the Ukrainian Orthodoxy into the OCU is not true, since the two sided bishops of the UOC entered this structure almost without parishes and therefore, cannot constitute the UOC plentitude. Filaret said this in an interview with the Ukrainian radio in the program Persona Grata.

“The Autocephalous Church came (to the “Unification Council " – Ed.) with 500 or 600 communities," Filaret said. And how about these two bishops of the Moscow Patriarchate? One came with one parish (Drabinko), the other came with 20 parishes (in reality, fewer than 10 communities supported Metropolitan Simeon – Ed.), whereas the latter’s eparchy counts 300 parishes. So, what kind of union is this?! This is a pure formality.”

According to Filaret, the structure which Phanar granted Tomos to "was actually the Kiev Patriarchate."

Earlier, Filaret said that the Tomos had worked harm and he would initiate the revival of the UOC KP structure.

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