Resolution of the "Local Council" of UOC KP published on the Net

The "Local Council" of the UOC KP. Photo: UP

On June 20, the “Local Council” of the UOC KP took place at St. Vladimir’s Cathedral and was attended by 200 delegates and 50 guests, as it was announced to the journalists. The draft resolution of the “Council”, consisting of 10 points, was published by “Strana”.

Thus, according to the published document, the “Local Council” of the UOC KP decided the following (the UOJ cites the full text of the resolution in translation from the Ukrainian language):

1. The Local Council does not approve but annuls the decision of the Bishops’ or so-called Local Council, because it was not the Local Council but a collection of signatures of the bishops, one priest and two laymen about the conditional liquidation of the UOC of the Kiev Patriarchate at the request of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. Without the conditional liquidation of the Kiev Patriarchate, there could not be the Unification Council of the Ukrainian Churches on December 15, 2019, and the bestowal of the Tomos of autocephaly.

2. The Local Council declares and decides that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate is registered with a state body and continues its existence and activity for the benefit of the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian state.

3. The Local Council confirms that His Holiness Filaret, the Patriarch of Kiev and All Rus-Ukraine, elected for life by the Local Council of the UOC of the Kiev Patriarchate on October 20-22, 1995, continues to be the head of the UOC of the Kiev Patriarchate.

4. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate continues to be the owner of all funds, all property (movable and immovable) acquired at its own expense or transferred to it by state bodies or local governments, including churches, monasteries, educational institutions, etc. according to treaties and agreements. All bank accounts are accounts of the Kiev Patriarchate as a legal entity.

5. All the monasteries of Kiev: St. Michael's Golden-Domed, St. Theodosius’s, Vydubychi St. Michael’s, as well as St. Nickolas of Boguslav, like all the parishes of Kiev belong to the Kiev Patriarchate Administration. The Kiev Patriarchate continues to own the Kiev Orthodox Theological Academy, founded by Metropolitan Filaret, Deputy Patriarch of Kiev and All Rus-Ukraine in 1992.

6. All the dioceses, monasteries, religious educational institutions, brotherhoods, missions, which are state-registered as religious organizations of the UOC-Kiev Patriarchate continue to belong to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate. Those eparchial administrations and religious communities that have re-registered their Statutes with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine but wish to be part of the Kiev Patriarchate may also belong to the Kiev Patriarchate. The UOC-Kiev Patriarchate also includes those foreign eparchies and parishes that are still affiliated with it.

7. The Tomos of autocephaly, granted to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on January 6, 2019, in Constantinople (Istanbul), does not comply with the statute of the autocephalous Churches, which all autocephalous Churches have, and therefore makes the Ukrainian Orthodox Church dependent on the Constantinople Patriarchate.

8. The Council thanks the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and all the hierarchs of the Mother Church for attempts to solve the Ukrainian church problem, but we are not satisfied with the content of the Tomos of autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

9. The current Statute of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate is the Statute on the Administration of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate (full edition), adopted at the Council on May 13, 2016, and registered by the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine on July 8, 2016.

10. The Local Council calls on all patriots of Ukraine, who hold dear our Ukrainian state, to support the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate during its trials and attempts to destroy it from the inside, which our external enemies rejoice. But the truth is with us, therefore God is with us.

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