Dumenko’s upcoming visit to Athos sparks tensions on Holy Mountain – media

Epifaniy Dumenko. Photo: OCU

On October 10, 2025, the head of the OCU, Epifaniy Dumenko, plans to arrive at Mount Athos; however, this trip is being arranged secretly and has provoked protests among Athonite monasteries, reports the Greek outlet Romfea.

According to the publication, Dumenko is expected to visit the monasteries of Pantokrator, Xenophontos, and Iveron. On October 11, he is to conduct an all-night vigil at the Skete of Prophet Elijah, and on October 12, he will celebrate the liturgy at the Xenophontos Monastery.

However, the Holy Kinot has made it clear that it will not receive Dumenko officially, seeking to avoid tension within the Athonite community. Reports indicate that many monasteries on the Holy Mountain, despite pressure from hierarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, have refused to receive the head of the OCU.

This is already the third attempt to organize such a visit. Previous attempts, in 2021 and in May 2025, were unsuccessful due to the firm opposition of Athonite abbots.

Greek media note that the visit is being arranged under conditions of secrecy – the official program has still not been published. Only two monasteries – Pantokrator and Xenophontos – showed goodwill toward the OCU from the very beginning.

Recall that in September 2025, Greek sources reported that, according to the agenda of the Holy Kinot for Monday, September 22, Patriarch Bartholomew had sent a letter of recommendation concerning Dumenko’s visit to Athos, accompanied by Metropolitan Apostolos of Melitene.

“There were strong objections within the Holy Kinot to the planned visit, especially at a time when, in Ukraine, the clergy, monks, and faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are being ruthlessly persecuted by the Zelensky regime – first and foremost the canonical Metropolitan Onuphry,” the Greek outlet romioitispolis.gr reported at the time.

Sources also claimed that, to avoid open protests, Dumenko’s visit was being prepared as an allegedly “unofficial” tour of “obedient” monasteries, followed by a “pilgrimage” – with the assistance of Metropolitan Apostolos of Melitene – to two or three additional monasteries and to the Holy Epistasia, in order to take the necessary photos and declare that Athos “recognizes” the schismatic “Autocephalous Church of Ukraine.”

Greek observers emphasize that Dumenko’s possible presence on the Holy Mountain is not merely a visit, but a powerful symbolic gesture that threatens to exacerbate divisions within the Athonite monastic community.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that Dumenko has been increasingly active in meeting with representatives of other Christian confessions and Orthodox Churches. On September 30, he received at his residence a delegation of so-called “Nordic Churches” from Iceland, Norway, Finland, and Sweden. All members of this delegation belong to Lutheran and Evangelical denominations that openly support and participate in the LGBT movement.

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