Phanar considers Filaret an ordinary bishop without an episcopal see
This statement was made by Archbishop Job (Getcha) of Telmessos.
The hierarch of the Patriarchate of Constantinople Archbishop Job (Getcha) of Telmessos, commenting on the canonical status of Filaret Denisenko, said that the Phanar considers him to be “the former metropolitan of Kiev”.
The archbishop said this to the famous Russian religious journalist Father Andrei Kuraev on Facebook, answering a direct question about the dignity, which, according to Constantinople, Filaret has now.
Andrei Kuraev: “Your Grace, what is Filaret’s dignity now, from the Phanar’s point of view? Bishop? Metropolitan? Patriarch? What is the name of his episcopal see and does he have it at all "?
Archbishop Job (Getcha): "As far as I know, ‘the former Metropolitan of Kiev‘."
Thus, it became officially known that having granted Filaret “legitimacy”, the Patriarchate of Constantinople considers him to be an ordinary bishop without an episcopal see, who used to be the Metropolitan of Kiev.
Father Andrei Kuraev also writes about this (in a somewhat expressive form): “So, Filaret’s statement yesterday ‘I was, I am and I will be the patriarch’ is just his self-presentation. Behaving so, he already buried the autocephalous project of Phanar in 2008. The same way the old man is pushing on now.”
We recall that on October 12, the day after the decision of the Synod of the Constantinople Patriarchate on his “legitimisation”, Filaret refused to recognize his new “lower” status. Patriarch Bartholomew was still not commemorated during the service at St. Vladimir’s Cathedral. Instead, Filaret himself was commemorated as a patriarch.
