Another "hierarch" withdraws his signature from "Council" starting up OCU

Joasaf Shibaev, Filaret Denisenko and Epiphany Dumenko. Photo: vidomosti.kiev.ua

“Metropolitan” Joasaph Shibaev of Belgorod and Oboyan of the UOC-KP reported on his Facebook page that he withdrew his signature from the decisions of the “Council” of the UOC-KP, which started up the new religious organization – the OCU.

According to him, as a permanent member of the “Synod” of the UOC-KP, he was forced to sign a “paper on the liquidation of the Kyiv Patriarchate at the so-called Local Council in the Warm Sofia on December 15, 2018.”

In this regard, Joasaf Shibaev stated that he withdrew his signature “on the grounds that this meeting cannot be considered the Local Council of the Kyiv Patriarchate … because it was carried out ignoring all the procedures entitled under the Statute.”

According to Shibaev, "it is the observance of these procedures that guarantees the adoption of a deliberate and balanced, and due to that a fair decision".

He emphasized that "the collection of signatures was carried out deliberately with extreme haste by those gathered at the Warm Sofia, with a completely different purpose, an assembly of the clergy and laity".

According to the “hierarch” of the UOC, such a hasty collection of signatures by the “collectors of these signatures” was explained by the fact that “they did this in response to the ultimatum demand of the ‘Greeks’, who were in the next room, to hold the ‘Unification Council’ and establish a new jurisdiction – the so-called OCU of Greek bishops."

Based on the foregoing, Joasaf Shibaev believes that his signature was put as a result of deceit "and therefore, cannot have legal force".

As reported earlier, Filaret withdrew the signature to the document of the "Council", which gave rise to the creation of the OCU.

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