OCU “hierarch”: UOC metropolitan’s service in Jerusalem caused us pain

Ilarion Protsyk. Photo: OCU

OCU “Metropolitan of Rivne and Ostroh” Ilarion Protsyk published an open letter to UOC Metropolitan Pimen of Rivne and Ostroh, demanding that he publicly explain his participation in the Divine Liturgy at the Gorny Convent in Ein Karem.

The head of the OCU structure in the Rivne region took issue with the fact that the convent is under the jurisdiction of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem and that Metropolitan Pimen concelebrated with ROC Archimandrite Vassian (Zmeyev).

“This concelebration could not go unnoticed and caused justified outrage, deep pain, and numerous questions among Ukrainian believers,” Protsyk wrote.

According to him, “every public service celebrated by a bishop is not merely his personal affair,” but “a visible ecclesiastical testimony” that, in wartime, “takes on particular moral and ecclesiastical significance.”

Protsyk described the official statement by the UOC Rivne Eparchy – which said that the Liturgy had been celebrated at the invitation of Ukrainian sisters living at the convent and at the request of mothers of fallen soldiers – as “a substitution of concepts.”

“Prayer for Ukraine does not negate the fact of concelebration... One cannot use prayer for Ukraine to cover up an act that requires a separate and honest explanation,” he asserted.

In his letter, Protsyk listed a series of grievances and demands addressed to the UOC hierarch. In particular, he demanded that Metropolitan Pimen say whether he knew “about the circumstances surrounding Archimandrite Vassian’s expulsion from Bulgaria and his designation as persona non grata in North Macedonia.”

Protsyk also demanded that the metropolitan pledge to “refuse to concelebrate” with clergy of the Moscow Patriarchate in the future.

“If this concelebration was a mistake, then find the archpastoral courage to admit it and ask forgiveness from those Ukrainians whom your actions have hurt,” Protsyk wrote.

Recall that the OCU’s media resources have launched a campaign over Metropolitan Pimen’s service at the Gorny Convent in Jerusalem. In response, the UOC Rivne Eparchy stated that the Liturgy had been celebrated at the invitation of Ukrainian sisters who have lived at the convent for more than 20 years and at the request of mothers of fallen Ukrainian soldiers, adding that prayer for Ukraine “cannot be interpreted as support for the aggressor state.”

Earlier, the UOJ reported that Metropolitan Pimen concelebrated with a hierarch of the Jerusalem Patriarchate at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

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