What is the difference between Dumenko and "Patriarch" Nikodym?
Dumenko and Kobzar. Collage: UOJ
The OCU “defrocked” the “Patriarch” of the UOC-KP Nikodym Kobzar, as well as “Metropolitans” Nikon Hrabliuk and Mykhailo Kovaliuk. These people, according to the OCU's assertions, after Filaret's death “arbitrarily declare themselves the UOC of the Kyiv Patriarchate,” but their activity “is an unsuccessful attempt by a marginal group to create a schism, behind which Russian interests and influences are clearly visible.”
Dumenko's office also stated that the aforementioned persons “have never been bishops.”
These statements cannot but cause bewilderment. The key one is: how do the OCU leaders differ from those whom they “defrocked”? All of them, both Dumenko with Zoria and Nikodym with his associates, were “ordained” by one and the same person – Filaret Denysenko. Moreover, he “consecrated” Nikodym while already being a “legitimate hierarch,” recognized by the Churches of Constantinople, Greece, Alexandria, and Cyprus.
None of them declared Filaret to be a new schismatic; therefore, from the point of view of the Greek Churches, the episcopal status of Nikodym and the other "hierarchs" of the UOC-KP is far more evident than that of Serhii Dumenko and his colleagues.
And that is not even the main issue. The situation with "Patriarch" Nikodym very much resembles the beginnings of the Kyiv Patriarchate in the 1990s. Back then, Filaret, just like Nikodym now, kept insisting on the need for the "full independence of the Ukrainian Church." In the same way, he mass-produced new "bishops," among whom were the current leaders of the OCU, who today puff themselves up and portray themselves as the canonical Church.
But where is the guarantee that in 20-30 years another Patriarch of Constantinople will not call Nikodym's group the new “most holy Ukrainian Church” and hand them another tomos?
After all, the difference between Dumenko and Kobzar is not in having or not having apostolic succession or spiritual gifts, nor in the depth of their theological knowledge. It lies only in the words of one Patriarch from the shores of the Bosphorus, who for 25 years considered Filaret and his “bishops” laymen, and then changed his mind.
However, there is one more difference. Filaret and his UOC-KP were actively supported by the authorities from the very beginning. Nikodym Kobzar is deprived of this support.
But Patriarch Bartholomew will leave, the government's policy will change, and Epifaniy and Kobzar will once again become twin brothers.
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