Filaret admitted the failure of Poroshenko’s church project and announced his refusal to liquidate the “Kiev Patriarchate”
The schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” created by Petro Poroshenko and recognized by Istanbul will not be recognized by the rest of the local Churches, therefore another schismatic structure – the “Kiev Patriarchate” – will not be liquidated and will continue its activities.
The head of the “Kyiv Patriarchate” Filaret, who had previously anathematized the Russian Orthodox Church for causing a split in Ukraine, stated this during a press conference, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“None of the other Churches recognizes the “Ukrainian Church” not only as a patriarchy, but also as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and we see this in reality.
Even those Churches that before the tomos were inclined to recognize the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as autocephalous if the Ecumenical Patriarch gives the tomos, now these same Churches refuse, not openly, but under various pretexts.
But there is no prayerful unity with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Neither the Greek Church, nor the Cypriot Church, nor the Jerusalem Church, nor the Alexandrian Church, I’m not even talking about the Serbian or Bulgarian Churches. Nobody has prayer unity. So far, we do not see any paths that would lead to recognition,” Filaret shared his revelations.
He named Russia as the main culprit in this situation.
“Why don’t they admit it? There are many reasons, but the main reason is Moscow. And therefore, there it operates among other Orthodox structures, and in Ukraine the same Moscow acts, but now not through the Moscow Patriarchate, but through us, when our bishops oppose what they created, against the “Kiev Patriarchate,” he said Filaret.
The schismatic also noted that the status of the Kyiv Metropolis granted by Bartholomew does not suit him, therefore the “Kiev Patriarchate” will continue to seek recognition of its independence by foreign canonical Churches and the Ecumenical Patriarch.
“Therefore, our task is ... to preserve the “Kiev Patriarchate,” but to preserve it for now only in Ukraine, because we received the tomos as the Kiev Metropolis, and we thank the Ecumenical Patriarch for providing us with the tomos in the status of the Kyiv Metropolis.
Outwardly, we are the Kyiv Metropolis recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarch, but we are not happy with this, our future is the formation and recognition of the “Kyiv Patriarchate”, this is the future. And the Ecumenical Patriarch does not refuse this, that in the future the “Ukrainian Church” will be recognized in the status of the Patriarchate. And this was officially stated by the representative of the Ecumenical Patriarch, Archbishop Daniel.
But in order to raise the issue of recognizing the “Ukrainian Orthodox Church” in the status of the Patriarchate, it is necessary to unite and create one Orthodox Church in Ukraine,” Filaret concluded.
Let us recall that earlier Ukrainian analyst Andrey Zolotarev noted that most of the hierarchs of the Ukrainian non-canonical church will remain in the “OCU” with Epiphanius, however Filaret will continue his struggle for a place in the sun.
Let us note that later, during the ceremony of honoring the memory of the Hieromartyr Macarius in the Vladimir Cathedral, of all those invited, only 4 bishops of the “OCU” were present.
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