Drabynko prays with Filaret at “service” in St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral

Philaret and Drabinko. Photo: press service of the UOC KP

Metropolitan Oleksandr (Drabynko) concelebrated with the head of the Kyiv Patriarchate, Filaret Denysenko, at an all-night vigil in St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral, according to the press service of the UOC–KP.

The text states that Drabinko acted “by the patriarch’s blessing.”

It should be recalled that the OCU does not recognize the existence of the UOC–KP and considers the clergy “ordained” there to be non-canonical. Drabynko himself is the author of the well-known work “Why Schismatic Groupings in Ukraine Are Called Non-Canonical,” written during his period of service in the UOC.

In that work, he stated that the deposition and anathema of Filaret Denysenko were fully justified and were recognized by all Local Churches, beginning with Constantinople under Patriarch Bartholomew.

“Neither the former Metropolitan Filaret nor the organization he currently heads, registered under the name ‘Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate,’ has any relation whatsoever to the Orthodox – One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church that we confess in the Creed… The ‘Kyiv Patriarchate,’ deprived of the grace-filled gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are passed down from generation to generation through apostolic succession, has embarked on a path of transformation into a neo-Protestant sect, with an outwardly theatrical preservation of the Orthodox rite,” Drabynko concluded his work in 2007.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that two clerics of Dumenko’s OCU had recently transferred to the UOC–KP.

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