Epiphanius spoke about the threat of losing the tomos
The return of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which is subordinate to Constantinople, to the structure of the Kyiv Patriarchate revived by Filaret will mean “the loss of the tomos and all the achievements of church independence,” reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
This opinion was expressed by the head of the OCU, Metropolitan Epifaniy, in an interview with the Kyiv publication LB.ua.
“...In the conditions after the unification and the receipt of the Tomos, the idea of the Kyiv Patriarchate in the form in which it was before the Council (Unification - ed.), which at one time gave life, breath, can take this life away and split the local church. Today, a return to the previous structure of the Kyiv Patriarchate will mean a return back to isolation, the loss of the Tomos and all the achievements of church independence,” he emphasized.
According to Epiphany, if there had not been a decision of the Local Council of the Kiev Patriarchate to terminate the activities of the religious association of the UOC-KP by unifying and joining the newly created Orthodox Church of Ukraine, to terminate the Charter and all statutory bodies of the UOC-KP, the Council that united the UAOC would not have taken place and the UOC KP into a single OCU.
“Therefore, to say that now, contrary to the resolutions of the Local Council of the UOC-KP and the Unification Council on December 15, 2018, the Kyiv Patriarchate structurally exists in the future, is incorrect. This is wrong, factually, and even more so legally,” says Epifaniy.
At the same time, according to Epiphany, the Ukrainian Church, by all criteria, deserves to receive the status of patriarchy in the future.
“But it will be possible to raise this issue before the Ecumenical Patriarch when the local church unites, if not all Ukrainian Orthodoxy, then its overwhelming majority,” said Metropolitan Epifaniy, adding that Patriarch Filaret himself spoke about this more than once in his interviews.
The Primate of the OCU also stated that he had not received an invitation from Filaret to a solemn prayer communication in memory of the Hieromartyr Macarius, scheduled for May 14.
The invitation nevertheless came after information about it was disseminated by the media. It is noted that Metropolitan Epifaniy also received an invitation on the letterhead of the UOC-KP, which legally does not exist, but Filaret insists on its existence.
“I received information from the media that you expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that I did not invite you to the celebration of the memory of the Hieromartyr Macarius, Metropolitan of Kyiv. The reason is that, after being elected Primate of the UOC, you never celebrated the Divine Liturgy with me - for five months... Because with your dissatisfaction you expressed your desire to take part in the celebration of the patron saint of our Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Sschmch. Macarius, Metropolitan of Kyiv, I gladly invite Your Beatitude to the feast of St. Macarius in the Patriarchal Cathedral on May 14, 2019,” the publication quotes the text of the invitation received by Metropolitan Epiphanius on behalf of Patriarch Philaret.
As PolitNavigator reported, Filaret was accused of wanting to revive the UOC-KP with himself at its helm, which would have led to a schism in the OCU created by Poroshenko and Constantinople.
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