Gryznya for the post of head of the “Poroshenko Church”: this is not the end yet
Filaret Metropolitan of Lutsk and Volyn Mikhail said that he withdrew his candidacy for the election of the head of the “Poroshenko Church” because he was blackmailed, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
He spoke about this on Tuesday, December 18, during a press conference, reports the Lutsk publication "First Channel of Social News".
He said that during the cathedral he met several times with President Petro Poroshenko and the head of the UOC-KP Filaret.
“It was just a conversation about the future of the church in Ukraine. The president’s position was: let’s negotiate, because this is a decisive moment for Ukraine,” the metropolitan explained.
“I took into account what awaits us in the future, and this is division, several Orthodox churches, accusations from the Patriarch of Constantinople that he contacted us in vain, accusations from the Russians that we cannot figure things out here. And I decided to withdraw my candidacy in favor of a unified Ukrainian church,” said Mikhail.
At the same time, he noted that before this he had “heated discussions” with Filaret.
According to Mikhail, Filaret insisted that representatives of the UOC-KP cannot go to the council and dissolve themselves, since by nominating the candidacy of Metropolitan Epiphany, they could lose in choosing the primate of the new church.
“Like, there is another candidate who will win. Therefore, Filaret said that in this case he would not dissolve the Kiev Patriarchate and participate in the council,” Metropolitan Mikhail recalled.
“We were on the verge of non-dissolution. I told the delegates that I was being blackmailed, and this is undemocratic, there were no arguments in favor of the fact that I should withdraw my candidacy,” Mikhail said.
He also noted that although he agreed to withdraw his candidacy in favor of Epiphany, he still wants to be the head of the “Poroshenko Church.”
“I do not give up the desire to become a primate. I have my own vision of what the church should be,” said the clergyman.
He assured that the elections of the new head of the “Poroshenko Church” could take place at any time.
“Elections could happen tomorrow. There are several reasons for this - the death of the primate, his resignation from office. The fact that he is young is not a guarantee that he will remain in office for a long time,” the Metropolitan noted.
Let us remind you that on Saturday the so-called “unification council” elected Metropolitan Epiphanius (Dumenko), who has a reputation as the “right hand” of the head of the UOC-KP Filaret of Pereyaslavl and Belotserkovsky, to the post of head of the “Poroshenko Church” subordinate to Istanbul.
The squabble over the post of head of the “Church of Poroshenko”: this is not the end yet.