OCU rep calls 2018 detention of Phanar delegation protection from Moscow

Dumenko, Deacon Gregorios, author of the Phanar report, and Metropolitan Emmanuel. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

OCU spokesperson Yevstratiy Zoria shared on Facebook a post by the OCU resource "Ukraina Pravoslavna" ("Ukraine Orthodox"), which described the de facto detention of the Phanar delegation in Kyiv ahead of the "Unification Council" as protection from Moscow.

Commenting on the report "Chronicle of the Week of the Clergy-Laity Council of Kyiv" by the current Metropolitan Gregorios of Ancyra (Ankara), OCU representatives stated that instead of a disgrace, this document "has become another worthy page of our history".

Regarding the actions of the Ukrainian special services, the text states that these were forced measures to protect against Moscow's agents: "We protected the high guests. Because, it seems, they did not fully realize the danger."

"Even then, the authorities understood the level of threats to each delegation member," the authors of the resource, whose activity is linked to Yevstratiy Zoria's supervision, assure.

At the end of the post, they proposed to mark October 11, when the Phanar called the members of the UOC-KP and the UAOC canonical hierarchs, as the Day of Justice and Freedom, "which became possible thanks to the fact that wonderful people have fought and keep fighting for this freedom."

Recall that in his document, Metropolitan Gregorios, who was then a deacon of the Patriarchate, describes how he reprimanded Yevstratiy Zoria in a restroom: "We did not come here to negotiate, and not to call into question the rights of the Mother Church. She teaches, and you learn. In this case, we are not negotiating as equals with equals."

In another passage, the author notes that, according to Zoria's ultimatum to the members of the Constantinople delegation, unless the Phanar agrees to Filaret becoming "Chairman of the Holy Synod and Exarch of All Ukraine, with the rights of the Primate" in the new structure, "there will be no Council without this."

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that UOJ-USA published a scandalous Phanar document on the chronicles of the OCU creation.

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