UOC bans the priest who concelebrated with Phanar Exarch and OCU clergy

Archimandrite Gabriel receives communion from the hands of a Phanariot bishop. Photo: Facebook page of the stauropegy of the Patriarchate of Constantinople

His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine has removed Archimandrite Gabriel (Anisimov) from his position as the superior of the Stavropegial Monastery in Sevastopol and prohibited him from performing priestly duties. This decision is outlined in a decree issued by the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) on October 18, 2023, raskolam.net reports.

The reason for this action is cited as a violation of the priest's oath and the resolution of the UOC Bishops' Council from November 13, 2018, which called for the cessation of Eucharistic communion with the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Archimandrite Gabriel had concelebrated at the St. Andrew's Church in Kyiv with Exarch of the Ecumenical Patriarchate Bishop Michael of Comana and "clergymen" of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) on September 24 and October 15, 2023.

In a previous report by the UOJ, it was noted that Metropolitan Naphanail of Volyn and Lutsk had banned the priest-in-charge of the St. Mary Magdalene Church in Lutsk, Father Oleksandr Kolb, from the priesthood after his participation in a service at the St. Andrew's Church in Kyiv on September 24, 2023. Subsequently, the banned priest transferred his parish to the OCU.

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