UOC-KP "bishop": OCU seized Filaret's body, our cathedral, and patriarchate

Dumenko at Filaret's funeral service at St. Volodymyr's Cathedral. Photo: OCU

One of the oldest "bishops" of the UOC-KP, "Metropolitan of Belgorod and Oboyan" Ioasaph Shibaev, published an extensive post on his Facebook page, in which he described the events that followed the death of Filaret Denysenko on March 20, 2026. According to him, representatives of the OCU actually seized the body of the deceased, St. Volodymer's Cathedral, and the patriarchate building.

Shibaev claims that immediately after Denisenko's death, "the body was taken by representatives of the 'Holy Church of Ukraine'" (as the OCU is called in the Tomos), after which "police, priests, and seminarians of the OCU surrounded St. Volodymyr's Cathedral and the patriarchate building." According to the "metropolitan," "hierarchs of the Kyiv Patriarchate were expelled from the cathedral," and those who were in the patriarchate building were released only "after thorough and humiliating searches by police and OCU priests." Shibaev claims that OCU seminarians "did not hesitate to loudly call the patriarch and his testament obscene names."

It should be noted that Filaret made up a testament in which he requested that he be given funeral services at St. Volodymyr's Cathedral by hierarchs of the Kyiv Patriarchate he led. However, according to Shibaev, the testament was ignored, the body was "stolen," and the funeral service was conducted at St. Michael's Monastery of the OCU. In St. Volodymyr's Cathedral, they only put the body to rest.

Shibaev pays special attention to the "archbishop" of the UOC–KP, Andriy (Marutsak), who, according to him, entered into collusion with the OCU and contributed to the fact that "the OCU managed to quietly and discreetly seize St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral, the Patriarchate, and the body of the deceased Most Holy Patriarch."

Shibaev insists that the election of Nikodym was the only correct decision under extreme conditions. According to him, "the bishops – honor and glory to them – despite the danger, made the only correct decision: not to delay the election of a patriarch and thereby to thwart the unjust deed – the liquidation of the Kyiv Patriarchate." Seven "bishops" held an online vote the day after Denysenko’s death and unanimously elected "Archbishop Nikodym of Sumy" as "Patriarch of Kyiv and all Rus’-Ukraine.”

Shibaev called on UOC-KP believers to “unite in solidarity around newly elected Patriarch Nikodym and, through their constructive efforts, to render the schemes of ill-intentioned actors ineffective.”

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that Dumenko took control of St. Volodymyr's Cathedral in Kyiv.

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