In the suburbs of Kharkov, 30 km from the Ukrainian-Russian border, a new Filaret parish has appeared. In the cottage village of Udachino in the village of Russian Tishki, the Church of the Archangel Michael was opened. This is already the eleventh prayer place of the UOC-KP that has opened in the region.
The building, up to 20 meters high, with a dome in the “Cossack Baroque” style, was erected in three years with funds from sponsors - wealthy people who settled here.
For such an occasion, “Patriarch Filaret” personally came, known as Mikhail Denisenko. Mitrofan, “Bishop of Kharkov and Bogodukhovsky UOC-KP,” took part in the festive celebration.
About a hundred inhabitants of the village of Udachino and nearby villages gathered there. In addition to them, Vice-Governor Anataly Babichev, regional military commissar Yuri Kalgushkin, deputy head of the Kharkov garrison for educational work, Colonel Lukyanenko, as well as the head of the Military Medical Clinical Center of the Northern Region, Colonel Podolyan, arrived there. The ceremony was also attended by the sponsor of the construction - deputy of the Kharkov City Council Andrey Saenko from the Samopomich faction.
The residents of the cottage village, attached to the old Russian village, who came in large numbers, wanted to see the church of the “Kyiv Patriarchate” in their village. Like, there is a canonical church for locals in the neighboring village of Cherkasy Tishki. The Tikhotsky landowners built there with their own money back in the old days. And the villages themselves have existed since Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich gave permission to develop these empty lands. So Slobozhanshchina was settled jointly - by refugees from across the Dnieper (Cherkasy) and residents of neighboring Russian counties.
Filaret reported that since 2014, the number of churches of its supporters began to grow sharply: in four years, more than 4000 churches were opened in Ukraine.
“This indicates that Ukrainians honor the faith of their fathers and are ready to stand up for their church and their land,” he noted.
Among the guests of honor was Philaret’s “Metropolitan of Belgorod and Oboyan” Joasaph. In this regard, it is interesting why and on what legal grounds does such a division exist in a confession that considers itself national and seeks autocephaly on Ukrainian territory? Is this a claim on neighboring Russian regions?
As the head of the “patriarchy” said, “this temple is an outpost of Ukrainian statehood.”
And then he started talking about legalizing his own office in the Orthodox world.
“The appeal of the Ukrainian hierarchs to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church was also signed by ten of the 80 archbishops of the Russian Orthodox Church. We are waiting for Bartholomew’s positive decision, for this will establish the United Local Ukrainian Church, which is what the hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church, who intend to maintain their dominion in Orthodoxy, are so afraid of. If we had autocephaly, Crimea would be ours, and there would be no occupation of Donbass,” said the anathematized Denisenko.
As part of the celebration, the false patriarch awarded church awards to pro-nationalist entrepreneurs who allocated funds for the construction of this “outpost” of de-Russification and non-canonicality, and also congratulated his appointee, “Bishop of Kharkov and Bogodukhov Mitrofan,” on the 40th anniversary.
The position of the canonical metropolis on this issue has not been made public.