“Metropolitan” Simeon: Onufriy is a dissenter
"Metropolitan" Simeon, upon returning from the "Unification Council", made a number of ambiguous statements at a sermon after Sunday liturgy.
On December 16, in the Cathedral of Vinnitsa, at the sermon during the Sunday liturgy, "metropolitan" Simeon declared that His Beatitude Onufriy is no longer the Kiev Metropolitan and now is in the status of a schismatic. This UOJ learnt about it from its own sources.
Also, "metropolitan" Simeon proclaimed the creation in Ukraine of a new Church (OCU) and the transition under its jurisdiction. Its head, Epiphany Dumenko, according to Simeon, is the legal metropolitan of Kiev and should now be commemorated at the services. “Metropolitan” Simeon made a message that services must be performed in the Ukrainian language. According to him, “for a start,” the early liturgy will be served in the cathedral in Ukrainian. Besides, "metropolitan" Simeon said that the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers on re-registering the parishes of the UOC would soon follow, as a result of which the communities "would rush to the new church themselves."
All the words spoken from the pulpit in the cathedral were greeted with applause and loud cheers. At the conclusion of his speech "metropolitan" Simeon shouted, "Glory to Ukraine!", which drowned in a loud voice, "Glory to the heroes!"
10 people of all parishioners attended the cathedral at the liturgy on December 16. The rest of the people were a crowd of state employees, driven urgently by order of the mayor's office. It was they who acclaimed every word of "metropolitan" Simeon.
In the cathedral, the innovations of the “metropolitan” were not accepted. Most of the priests and the choir, almost all of the subdeacons, security guard, cooks, the entire children's choir left the temple. The clergy and believers of Vinnitsa appealed to the metropolitanate with a request to send them a new ruling bishop.
Recall the "metropolitan" Simeon is one of the two bishops of the UOC (along with "metropolitan" Alexander Drabinko), who participated in the "unification council." Their participation was commented by the head of the Synodal Information and Education Department of the UOC, Archbishop Clement. According to him, these hierarchs no longer have any relation to the UOC: “We only state they have backslidden into schism and we will inform the Local Churches that they are no longer listed in the diptych of canonical bishops of Ukraine,” Vladyka Clement emphasized.
