“Hierarch” who left OCU accuses Epiphany Dumenko of deceit

Head of the OCU Epiphany Dumenko. Photo: RISU

Filaret Panku, "bishop" of Faleshty and Eastern Moldova, who left the OCU to return to the Kiev Patriarchate, said that the head of the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Epiphany Dumenko, deceived the participants of the “Unification Council” and did not decide on important church issues with all the “hierarchs” of the OCU but only with its narrow circle. The minister of the UOC-KP reported this on the website of the Kiev Patriarchate.

“As participants in the constituent council of the OCU on December 15, 2018, we were promised that in the wake of the Unification Council, the Local Council of the new Church would be held to resolve all important issues. A year passed, and the Local Council was never held and is not even planned. Everything is decided in the traditions of the Church of Constantinople – through the decision of the Synod, which is governed by Metropolitan Epiphany. Behind the external conciliarity in the OCU, internally the OCU is governed by the narrow circle of Metropolitan Epiphany’s aides,” Filaret Panku said.

He also recalled that the Tomos forbids the Orthodox Church of Ukraine to have dioceses and parishes abroad. Therefore, Dumenko appropriated to Filaret Panku, the ruling bishop of the East Moldavian Diocese, the untruthful and, accordingly, illegal title of Bishop of Belgorod-Dniester.

“Of course, I have neither dioceses nor monasteries there and basically have nothing to do with Odessa region,” the schismatic emphasized. “By giving me this title, he wanted to hide the truth that in Moldova, the OCU has a diocese with communities and monasteries, which is outside Ukraine.”

According to the cleric of the UOC-KP, along with the clergy and believers, he understood the inappropriateness of his stay in the OCU, since the Tomos issued by Constantinople does not give autocephaly but enshrines the dependence of the structure of Epiphany Dumenko on the Patriarch of Constantinople.

As reported by the UOJ, on February 3, 2020, “bishop” of Faleshty and Eastern Moldova Filaret returned from the OCU to the ranks of the Kiev Patriarchate.

Read also