UOC spokesman on Dumenko's statement: insolence, lies, and manipulation

Sergei (Epiphany) Dumenko at the meal. Photo: a screenshot from the Novoe Vremia YouTube channel.

Sergei (Epiphany) Dumenko at the meal. Photo: a screenshot from the Novoe Vremia YouTube channel.

"Manipulation, double standards, impudence and lies," was how Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich, deputy head of the UOC DECR, characterized the words of Sergei (Epiphany) Dumenko that the OCU "temporarily tolerates" the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on "its canonical territory." Such a statement was posted by the UOC spokesman on his Telegram page.

The priest said that Dumenko in his statement completely twisted the situation, because "Epiphany and Co. emerged as a schism (when they were still in the UOC-KP and the UAOC) and all these decades existed and exist illegally as a parallel jurisdiction on the canonical territory of the legitimate UOC."

The spokesman stressed that at present the same people already under the name "OCU" "with the help of criminal actions of Phanar" act "on the canonical territory of the legitimate UOC, which have existed here in Ukraine all these years, decades and centuries."

"Everything has been turned upside down," Fr. Nikolai said and summed up – “these words (of Sergei Dumenko – Ed.) are manipulation, double standards, impudence and lies. It is also typical raiding, only in the church sphere.

We shall remind you that on 6 January 2021, Sergei Dumenko said in an interview to the Priamyi channel that Ukraine is a canonical territory of the OCU and that "we tolerate the Ukrainian Orthodox Church only temporarily."

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