Metropolitan Simeon of Vinnitsa and Barsk, at a meeting with the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and two other hierarchs of the canonical UOC on November 13, had a power of attorney from 15 of his fellow metropolitans and bishops, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
This information was published by Kommersant, citing sources in the leadership of the UOC.
“Metropolitan Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky and Vishnevsky Alexander, Archbishop of Novokakhovsky and Genicheski Filaret and Metropolitan of Vinnitsa and Barsky Simeon arrived at the meeting. The latter had powers of attorney from 15 rulers to participate in the meeting with the president. That is, in fact, a meeting between Petro Poroshenko and the episcopate of the UOC took place. It preceded the council of the Local Orthodox Church of Ukraine scheduled for November 21,” said the publication’s interlocutor.
According to him, the meeting of the president with the bishops of the UOC “took place against the will of the head of the UOC, Metropolitan Onuphry.”
However, according to sources among the bishops of the UOC, “the council (of the local Church created by Poroshenko and Bartholomew - Ed) will take place on November 21.”
“By agreement with the President of Ukraine, the voting of the episcopate will take place according to instructions. Metropolitan Simeon will arrive at the council with approximately 15 powers of attorney, and no one will be able to protest this, because these will be the real voices of the bishops. We believe that by its decision, Constantinople dissolved all church jurisdictions that existed in Ukraine. Now a new church unit will be created at a council of the PPCU... Each bishop is free to vote and move wherever he wants. This is the principle of conciliarity, which has been in effect since the XNUMXth century. And now we will act in accordance with it and will be guided by it,” the publication’s interlocutors noted.
As PolitNavigator reported, on November 13, Petro Poroshenko held a meeting at the Ukrainian House with some of the hierarchs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Earlier, the bishops of the UOC received a circular invitation from the head of the affairs of the UOC, Metropolitan Anthony of Boryspil and Brovary, to meet with Petro Poroshenko on November 13, 2018.
At the same time, on November 13, the UOC reported that the council of their bishops decided to meet with Poroshenko, but not in the “Ukrainian House”, but on the territory of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. However, Poroshenko refused the meeting.