The Honorary Patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (UOC) Filaret has said that he was deceived by the former President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
“We were deceived. The President Poroshenko and Patriarch Bartholomew deceived us and did not tell us about the content of the Tomos. If I knew the contents of the Tomos, then I would not have agreed to this Council, which was held on December 15, 2018. Because the Tomos we were given is not the one we wanted,” the clergyman said.
According to the honorary patriarch Filaret, an agreement was reached in front of the Unification Council of Ukrainian Orthodox churches on the refusal of the Kyiv patriarchate at the request of the Ecumenical Patriarch so that he would provide Tomos for autocephaly.
“For the sake of Tomos, we abandoned the patriarchy, but we had an agreement that there would be a patriarchy inside Ukraine, and a metropolis would exist, and the primate elected at this council would represent this church. That is, according to our agreements, Epiphanius should represent the Ukrainian Church externally, and I will manage as the patriarch of the patriarchy,” the honorary patriarch Filaret said.
In addition, the honorary patriarch of the UOC said that he sues the Ministry of Culture because of the de-registration of the UOC of the Kyiv Patriarchate.
“There was no hearing yet, but we filed a lawsuit,” UNIAN quotes Filaret, as saying.
Also, the honorary patriarch of the UOC Filaret appealed to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) because of the liquidation of the UOC KP.
According to Filaret, the parishioners of the UOC-KP “are actually forced to shift to another denomination, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” Radio Liberty reports.
“I am asking you to help through the force of international authority to prevent the illegal liquidation of our church by the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine,” Filaret said in an appeal to the OSCE Project Coordinator in Ukraine, Henrik Villadsen, dated July 30.
In an appeal to the President Zelensky, the patriarch claimed an ongoing “raider attack on the property of the UOC-KP”, allegedly led by Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Epifaniy.
As The Journalist earlier reported, Metropolitan of Austria: The decision on Ukraine’s Tomos will be made in appropriate time.
Подписывайтесь на telegram-канал journalist.today
