Filaret speaks about heresy in the Tomos for OCU

Filaret Denisenko explained why the Churches will never recognize the Tomos of the OCU. Photo: screenshot/youtube.com/ Kyiv Patriarchate

The Orthodox Churches have not yet recognized the Tomos of the OCU and "never will". The head of the UOC-KP Filaret Denisenko said this in an interview, which was aired on Ukraine 24 TV channel on October 20, 2020.

The "patriarch" confirmed that the day before he had really called on the Orthodox Churches not to recognize the Tomos for the OCU.

“In fact, not a single Church, regardless of my appeals, will recognize this Tomos,” he stressed. <...> “They will not do it, because this Tomos contains a deviation from the purity of Orthodoxy."

He specified that “the departure from Orthodoxy lies in the fact that by virtue of this Tomos, the Patriarch of Constantinople is granted not only the primacy of honor but the primacy of power in Orthodoxy. And this appears as a kind of papacy."

“Are we Orthodox or Catholics? We are Orthodox, and all Churches have a level playing field within the Orthodox Church, so there is not a single Church that has greater power than the rest. However, this Tomos enshrines namely this idea of primacy. Therefore, any Orthodox Church, as long as it cares about the preservation of purity of Orthodoxy, should not recognize this Tomos. This is currently the position of most Orthodox Churches – until today they have not recognized the Tomos for the OCU."

Thus, Filaret added, "the OCU has no future".

“Because the Tomos they are guided by provides for the supremacy of power, rather than honor of the Patriarch of Constantinople. Whoever recognizes this Tomos will recognize the supremacy of power of the Patriarch of Constantinople. And if the supremacy of the power of the Patriarch of Constantinople is recognized, then the purity of the Orthodox doctrine is lost, broken away with. And now two years have passed, but the Orthodox Churches have not recognized this Tomos. Why is it so? At one time, representatives of the OCU said, ‘well, time will pass and they will recognize it one after another’." It’s two years now! But there is no recognition, because they do not want to recognize the primacy of the power of the Patriarch of Constantinople. And this will never happen,” Filaret said.

Let us remind you that earlier the head of the UOC-KP appealed to “all Orthodox Christians”, exhorting them “to firmly stand on the principles of Holy Orthodoxy”.

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