Out-of-staff ROC cleric Kirill Govorun concelebrates with OCU “clergy”

OCU Christmas “service” in the Warm Church of St Sofia. Photo: Facebook

On 7 January, the feast of the Nativity of Christ, an out-of-staff cleric of the Moscow Patriarchate, Archimandrite Kirill (Govorun), concelebrated with representatives of the OCU in the refectory church of St Sofia of Kyiv. This was reported on Facebook by Ivan Sydor, an assistant to the head of the OCU, Epifaniy, also known as the “Maidan bell-ringer.”

“On the day of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the Warm Church of St Sophia, the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom was served. The evening before, a Vigil with litya was celebrated. The Holy Liturgy on Nativity day was celebrated by: the rector of the church, Archpriest Petro Landvytovych, Archimandrite Kirill Govorun, Archpriest Heorhiy Kovalenko, Priest Ivan Sydor, Priest Mykhailo Almes, Deacon Serhiy Shanta – in joint prayer with the devout community of the church,” the OCU “cleric” wrote.

As Orthodox blogger Oleksandr Voznesensky noted, the fact that Archimandrite Kirill (Govorun) concelebrated with OCU representatives answers every question as to why this out-of-staff ROC cleric “constantly wrote lies and manipulations about the UOC and in every way praised the tomos and supported the OCU.”

“The thing is, all this time he was, in essence, on the side of the schismatics,” Voznesensky commented. “It is quite possible that for some time he even concelebrated with them secretly, without publicizing it – and then a representative of the OCU press service exposed how he serves with the OCU people. Now everything has fallen into place.”

Voznesensky believes that Govorun’s concelebration with schismatics should be followed by an official reaction from the ROC in the form of a ban from serving.

The blogger also suggested that Govorun’s demonstrative concelebration with OCU representatives may signal an upcoming rotation in the OCU spokesperson role, where Yevstratiy Zoria has not shown himself as he should:

“And here is the most interesting part. The Constantinople Patriarchate is unlikely to take him in. If he is aiming for the OCU, then most likely for the Department for External Church Relations. And that means only one thing: Epifaniy may be preparing Mr. Yevstratiy Zorya to leave that position, freeing himself from dependence on influential old wolves of the UOC-KP; in this way he may try to build his own team in the leadership of the OCU. Besides, a year has passed, and Zorya has done nothing to secure recognition for the OCU,” Voznesensky concluded.

It should be recalled that the name of Archimandrite Kirill (Govorun) was mentioned among possible candidates for the primacy in the OCU. The Presidential Administration did not include the archimandrite in the lists of participants of the “unification council,” although he had flown to Kyiv from Los Angeles specifically for that purpose.

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