Filaret demands that authorities restore state registration of UOC-KP

Head of the UOC-KP Filaret Denisenko. Photo: strana.ua

On July 1, 2020, the head of the UOC-KP Filaret Denisenko published the “Appeal of the Patriarch of Kyiv and all Rus-Ukraine Filaret regarding the situation of Ukrainian Orthodoxy”, in which he claims that the registration of the OCU back in 2019 was illegal. The document is published on the website of the UOC-KP.

In a letter addressed to President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Dmitry Razumkov and Prime Minister Denis Shmygal, Filaret writes that since after receiving the Tomos it turned out that “the contents of the Ukrainian Tomos do not correspond to those of other Local Churches”, which is why “the autocephalous Ukrainian Church is held hostage to the Patriarchate of Constantinople”, Patriarch Filaret convened the Local Council on June 20, 2019 (for as the Patriarch, he had the canonical right to act so), at which it was decided to withdraw from the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and to continue the existence of the UOC-Kyiv Patriarchate as a truly independent Local Ukrainian Church.

According to Filaret, Patriarch Bartholomew demanded that the Ukrainian authorities liquidate the Kyiv Patriarchate.

“After the UOC-Kyiv Patriarchate withdrew from the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Epiphany created a commission led by Metropolitan Ioann (Yaremenko) of Cherkassky which was supposed to liquidate the Kyiv Patriarchate. We consider this decision not only illegal but also cynical. You cannot liquidate a religious organization that is not subordinate to another religious organization.”

In this regard, the head of the UOC-KP calls on the Ukrainian authorities "to restore the illegally cancelled state registration of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, which is truly an independent Ukrainian Church and serves the interests of the Ukrainian people."

As reported by the UOJ, earlier Poroshenko said he would not throw a stone at Filaret because of the Tomos case.

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