Filaret: Greece survived because its Church separated from Constantinople

Filaret Denisenko. Photo: cerkva.info

On August 24, 2021, on the day of the celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of the proclamation of Ukraine's independence, the head of the UOC-KP Filaret Denisenko claimed that Greece survived only due to the fact that its Church separated from Constantinople.

According to Filaret, the independence of the state is closely related to the independence of its church. He cited Greece as an example.

“When Greece seceded from the Ottoman Empire, the Greek government demanded that the Church secede from the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Patriarchate of Constantinople was surely opposed to it. But when the Greek Church separated, the state also survived,” Filaret said.

According to him, other states that seceded from the Ottoman Empire did the same, and "autocephalous churches of all states were created simultaneously."

“Therefore, if we hadn’t created the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate in Ukraine, then today we would not celebrate the 30th anniversary of our independent state, because the state as such would not exist,” assures the head of the liquidated UOC-KP.

He believes that only due to the fact that Ukraine has the Kyiv Patriarchate as an "independent church", "Russia cannot defeat Ukraine."

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that according to Filaret, one cannot honor someone else's patriarch at the expense of humiliating their own.

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