Filaret: Kiev Patriarchate can be liquidated only by the one who created it
According to the Ukrainian media, “honorary patriarch” of the OCU Filaret considers the prospects for the full restoration of the Kiev Patriarchate in Ukraine.
The Kiev Patriarchate is not liquidated and still exists, asserts Filaret Denisenko, who personally signed a document on self-dissolution of the UOC KP on December 15, 2018.
“The fact is that the Kiev Patriarchate has not been liquidated,” Filaret said in the TSN program of May 9. “It’s not eliminated. They want to make it look like it is liquidated. The Kiev Patriarchate can be liquidated by the one who created it.”
Recall, the day before the "honorary patriarch" sent invitations to the "hierarchs" of the OCU to the "solemn prayerful communion", printed out on the letterhead paper of the Kiev Patriarchate. At the same time, head of the OCU Epiphany did not receive such an invitation, which only even more reveals the conflict existing within the newly formed church structure.
According to TSN, Filaret gathers clergymen to discuss the prospects of the restoration of the Kiev Patriarchate, which he would prefer to head personally. In turn, Epiphany declares that any rhetoric of returning to the past is destructive for the new Ukrainian Church.
“It is inappropriate to speak now of some kind of return. We have to talk about our future, about our unity. Because in the future we still have a lot to do in order for this Church to be recognized by other Local Orthodox Churches. If we go back to the past, this is automatically the path to nowhere, this is the path to isolation, this is the return to the state in which we were until October 11, before the relevant decisions by the Constantinople Patriarchate,” stressed the “metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine” in his conversation with reporters.
As the UOJ reported, earlier the “honorary patriarch” explicitly stated that the Kiev Patriarchate exists. According to Filaret, the believers of the Kiev Patriarchate agreed to the metropolis status, granted by Phanar, only to speed up a “transitional period” toward the patriarchate.
