Hierarch: Phanar - separatists who are trying to divide church Ukraine
The actions of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in Ukraine can be called "aggression" and "the seizure of a foreign territory", says Archbishop Clement.
The Phanar abolished the act of 1686 on the ancient Kiev Metropolis, which then occupied no more than a third of the present territory of Ukraine. The head of the Information and Education Department of the UOC Archbishop Clement of Nezhin and Priluki said this on the "Radio Liberty".
According to him, “without any authority, without any justification, the Patriarchate of Constantinople makes statements declaring all Ukraine its canonical territory, without reference to history, to the canons.”
“We are talking about the Kiev Metropolis of the XVII century, which occupied a third of the current territory of Ukraine. And then how can they claim entire Ukraine? And if we are talking only about the Kiev Metropolis of the XVII century, then they, obviously, suggest dividing our country into some kind of “old” and “new” territories. This is a clear appeal to separatism,” said the bishop.
As the UOJ reported, earlier the hierarch of the Constantinople Patriarchate, Archbishop Job (Getcha), stated that according to the decision of the Synod of the Constantinople Church dated October 11, the act of 1686 was cancelled and, from a canonical point of view, the Church of the Moscow Patriarchate no longer exists in Ukraine. In turn, Metropolitan Luke (Kovalenko) of Zaporozhye and Melitopol stressed that the Phanar’s decision to abolish the act of 1686 to transfer the Kiev Metropolis is an anachronism and does not correspond to the realities of church life in Ukraine.
