Filaret accuses Culture Ministry of illegal liquidation of UOC KP Statute

Head of the UOC-KP Filaret Denisenko. Photo: liga.net

The head of the Kiev Patriarchate Filaret Denisenko claims on the official Facebook page of his religious structure that the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, together with the Ministry of Justice and the OCU, is engaged in the illegal liquidation of the Statute of the UOC-KP. 
 
In particular, according to Filaret, the euphoria from receiving the Tomos of autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is passing and the negative results of the Tomos, which manifest themselves in an “attempt to destroy the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate”, are felt.

Filaret asserts that "the decision to liquidate the Statute of the UOC Kiev Patriarchate and the Kiev Patriarchy of the UOC Kiev Patriarchate as a legal entity was adopted without my consent as the Patriarch by the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, and the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine deals with the same issue."

Thus, the head of the UOC-KP emphasizes, “the leadership of the OCU, together with some government officials, are destroying the Church, which gave birth to them and brought them to power”.

In addition, as evidence of the destruction of the "Church" by the new leadership of the OCU, Denisenko gave the examples of the cross processions of the UOC and the OCU. According to him, “there were about 50,000 participants in the cross procession of the UOC-Moscow Patriarchate, and less than 15,000 people in the cross procession of the Orthodox Church. Last year, 60,000 people took part in the cross procession of the Kiev Patriarchate, and only 20,000 – of the Moscow Patriarchate. These are visual consequences of the leadership of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. It is necessary to judge activity not by words but by deeds”.

He also called on the "clergy" of the UOC-KP not to re-register "its parish statutes to the OCU", because, according to him, the UOC-KP "is really independent and serves the interests of the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian state, and not foreign centres".

As reported earlier, Filaret accused Epiphany of interfering in the affairs of another "Church".

Read also