UOC-KP: OCU and Epiphany is Poroshenko’s main weapon against the new power
Believers of the Kiev Patriarchate addressed the public with a request to protect the UOC-KP and Filaret Denisenko from encroachments by the OCU.
Supporters of the UOC-KP made an open address to the Ukrainian public, in which they assert that ex-President Petro Poroshenko uses the OCU and Epiphany Dumenko in the fight against the new government. The document was published on August 7, 2019, on the official website of the UOC-KP.
The text says that Filaret Denisenko is “a great son of the Ukrainian people”, and “the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate is affected by another infringement and is on the verge of destruction”.
The authors of the appeal write that “President Poroshenko, despite his status of statesman and constitutional norms on the separation of the Church from the state, took a personal initiative to create an ‘independent’ Church in Ukraine, and as a result of months-long secret negotiations with Patriarch Bartholomew bargained for Ukraine and the independent UOC-KP the status of Metropolis.”
The address emphasizes that "Poroshenko affirms the complete independence of the new Church", but in fact, "he personally, without any coordination with the bishops and Patriarch Filaret, takes all the initiative and forms the metropolis being subordinate to the Patriarchate of Constantinople".
The authors of the publication are sure that Petro Poroshenko “was tasked with destroying the Kiev Patriarchate and its Primate” in advance. They claim that “the new Church and its Primate Epiphany is the main and reliable weapon of Petro Poroshenko in the fight against the new government, which he fears and hates".
Representatives of the UOC-KP believe that if the people do not protect the "Kiev Patriarchate", then "we will lose not only church independence, we will lose our state!"
That is why they urge the public "to rise to the struggle for our Kiev Patriarchy and its glorious primate – Patriarch Filaret, Hero of Ukraine".
Earlier, the UOJ wrote that Filaret called on his flock to protest against Epiphany.
