Dumenko urges Filaret to show “humility before God’s will”

Filaret and Dumenko. Photo: OCU

Serhiy Dumenko, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), published on his organization’s website a congratulatory message to Filaret on the 30th anniversary of his “patriarchate.”

He noted that “seven years ago, the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, having reviewed your six appeals to them, ultimately demonstrated that the Moscow decisions against you personally, and against the hierarchs, clergy, and faithful under your leadership, were invalid.”

On this basis, Dumenko wrote, the so-called “unification council” “overcame previous divisions and created a unified structure of the Local Church.”

He reminded Filaret of his earlier words “about the importance of maintaining the unity of the Church around the Kyiv Throne, which you often told us both from the ambo and in conversations with the episcopate and clergy – about the importance of conciliarity and humility before the will of God and the will of the fullness of the Church.”

“Therefore, we have been and will continue to embody these truthful and faithful admonitions of yours, preserving and strengthening the unity of the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine in the face of both old and new challenges,” Dumenko concluded.

Earlier, the OCU stated that Filaret’s will was not genuine. In that document, he had emphasized that he was not a member of the OCU and requested that members of this organization not perform his funeral service.

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