New “patriarch” of UOC-KP: The authorities became accomplices in OCU raiding

New head of the UOC-KP Nikodim Kobzar. Photo: Facebook

The newly elected head of the UOC-KP, Nikodim (Kobzar), said the Ukrainian authorities and the OCU joined forces to liquidate his structure immediately after the death of Filaret Denysenko. In an interview with Telegraf, he stressed that the election of a new primate took place under extreme circumstances unlike anything “any Christian church in the world” had ever known.

According to Nikodim, law enforcement blocked the holding of the council in the main church of the UOC-KP. “The primate of the Church began to be chosen outside the walls of St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral, which was guarded by the police, the Security Service, and other law enforcement agencies, who, in our view, became accomplices in the raider seizure of our patriarch’s body,” he said. He added that “direct blood relatives” of Filaret and the leadership of the OCU also took part in the process.

Nikodim accused representatives of Epifaniy Dumenko’s structure of hypocrisy, noting that they had earlier described Filaret as “a man in senility” and “with dementia.” “And now, suddenly, these same people, having seized the body, are trying to do PR off his blessed memory,” the newly elected head of the UOC-KP said, adding that the purpose of these actions was to take possession of property.

He was referring to the Patriarchate building at 36 Chykalenko Street and St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral, whose rector, Borys Tabachek, has already joined the OCU. Nikodim said UOC-KP hierarchs were no longer being allowed into the residence: “Law enforcement officers and men in balaclavas do not let us out and do not let anyone in. In other words, there is no access. And where is the Christian love in this, when four bishops arrived almost at night and had nowhere to stay?” He specified that valuable property remained in the building, including paintings by Ivan Izhakevych and books worth about 1 million hryvnias.

Despite the conflict, the new leader of the UOC-KP expressed readiness for dialogue in order to create a “single local church with a patriarchal structure,” independent of both Moscow and Constantinople. “If we truly want to have one Church and to have genuine Christian love, then even half an hour would be enough for us to explain ourselves,” Nikodim said, adding that he intended to reach out to Metropolitan Onufriy and OCU head Epifaniy.

At the same time, he stressed: “Let us stop using that phrase, Moscow Patriarchate. Legally speaking, our state of Ukraine has registered this Church as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. And that is the correct name to use. We all understand whom it was subordinate to and to whom it is still canonically subordinate, but we should still use the proper words.”

He also sharply criticized the methods used by the OCU, pointing to the contradiction between its rhetoric of unity and its actual actions. “The Orthodox Church of Ukraine declares that it is ready for unification... And on the very next day it violently seizes churches, using tear gas, batons, and angle grinders. Is that an expression of love? I think not,” Nikodim concluded.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that the UOC-KP had announced the election of a new “patriarch” in place of Filaret.

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