Filaret: The Russian Church will lose all Laurels in Ukraine
The Russian Orthodox Church will in the future lose the three largest shrines in Ukraine - the Kiev Pechersk, Pochaev and Svyatogorsk Lavras.
The head of the Ukrainian schismatics, Mikhail “Filaret” Denisenko, stated this today at a press conference in Kyiv, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Denisenko announced the transfer of “at least ten” bishops of the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate to the schismatics.
“One of the steps towards autocephaly is the convening of the Council of Bishops, which will consist of three churches: the “Kyiv Patriarchate” - this is more than 40 “bishops”, the UAOC - 12 “bishops” and it is not known, but they say that at least 10 bishops of the Moscow Patriarchate. At this council the unification of all three churches into one Ukrainian Orthodox Church will be recorded. And in Ukraine there will be one Ukrainian church. And those Orthodox Christians, clergy and bishops, and believers who do not want to be in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church should be called the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine. There will be a free choice - either choose the Ukrainian Church, or the Russian Church in Ukraine,” Denisenko said.
“As for churches, they belong to the community, and if the community goes to the UOC, then it goes with its temple, if it remains in the Russian Orthodox Church, naturally, the temple remains.
As for Lavra. Firstly, all the Laurels are located on the territory of Ukraine, which means they are Ukrainian shrines. But the transition to the UOC can only be voluntary, that is, the brethren of these Laurels must choose the Ukrainian Church voluntarily. I believe that sooner or later the laurels will pass to the UOC without any violence. I don’t know how much it will take for this, but I have no doubt that they will be in the UOC. This is a Ukrainian shrine,” Filaret said.
He assures that schismatic structures will not give orders for the seizure of churches by militants, since, supposedly, then Russia will have a reason to invade.
“I think that they are influenced by both the church itself and the Ukrainian police. After the Maidan, radical forces wanted to seize the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. We said that this should not be done, we are against it, and they retreated. That is, they listened to us. I think they will continue to listen,” he is confident.
“In Donbass, what was the reason (“Russian invasion” – ed.)? Protection of the Russian-speaking population. Now they want to come up with a new reason. This is the defense of the Russian Church, the Moscow Patriarchate, the defense of the Orthodox.
Knowing this, we will not allow any violence and will not give Moscow grounds for intruding into our Ukrainian affairs, into our Ukrainian church life,” Filaret added.
As PolitNavigator reported, all of the above did not prevent the schismatics from unilaterally declare Philaret rector Holy Dormition Kiev-Pechersk and Pochaev Lavra.
Earlier, Hieromonk Feofan warned that the seizure of churches of the canonical UOC by Filaret’s members could provoke harsh response from the parishioners.
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