"Patriarch emeritus" Filaret jumps off ecclesial cliff... again

(RISU) - In St Volodymyr's Cathedral of Kyiv, on the initiative of ex-Patrairch Filaret, an assembly involving several hierarchs, priests and lay people of the former UOC-Kyiv Patriarchate started, which participants call a "Local Council."

The main goal of the "Council", as ex-Patriarch Filaret had previously announced, is to restore the Kyiv Patriarchate, which will exist separately from the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

The "Council" is being held in the former main Church of the UOC-KP — St Volodymyr's Cathedral, whose rector Archpriest Boris Tabachek is a supporter and longtime ally of Filaret.

Only two bishops out of more than 40 bishops of the former UOC-KP arrived at the "Local Council of the UOC-KP". Metropolitan Ioasaph of Belgorod and Oboyany and his vicar Bishop Petro (Moskalev) arrived from Russia. In Russia and Moldova, there are several acting Orthodox parishes that belonged to the UOC-KP, they are subordinated to these hierarchs.

According to the list of participants of the "Council", Bishop Filaret of Falesht and Eastern Moldova (Theodore Panky) was supposed to come, but has not arrived.

According to BBC News Ukraine, the event is closed to the press, but before the "Council" began, there was no more than a dozen of priests in St Volodymyr 's Cathedral.

Among those invited to the Council were the abbots of some monasteries: Archimandrite Makariy (Papish) of St Theodosius Monastery, Archimandrite Arseny (Pozarny) of St Nicholas Monastery (in Bohuslav). According to the BBC, Archimandrite Makariy refused to go to the "Council".

Archimandrite Andriy (Marutsyak), a monk of St Theodosius Monastery, archpriests Leontiy Nikitenko, Roman Zagursky (USA), Volodymyr Chayka (Germany) and deacon Vasily Didukh were also invited to St Volodymyr's Cathedral.

At the same time, the sources of BBC in the OCU suggest that some of the abbots mentioned in the guest lists may fail to appear at the Council.

And also...

(SPZH) - It is reported that the participants of the “Local Council” of the UOC KP unanimously voted for the resolution and address to the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky.

On June 20, the “Local Council” of the UOC KP took place at St. Vladimir’s Cathedral and was attended by 200 delegates and 50 guests, as it was announced to the journalists. The draft resolution of the “Council”, consisting of 10 points, was published by “Strana”.

Thus, according to the published document, the “Local Council” of the UOC KP decided the following (the UOJ cites the full text of the resolution in translation from the Ukrainian language):

1. The Local Council does not approve but annuls the decision of the Bishops’ or so-called Local Council, because it was not the Local Council but a collection of signatures of the bishops, one priest and two laymen about the conditional liquidation of the UOC of the Kiev Patriarchate at the request of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. Without the conditional liquidation of the Kiev Patriarchate, there could not be the Unification Council of the Ukrainian Churches on December 15, 2019, and the bestowal of the Tomos of autocephaly.

2. The Local Council declares and decides that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate is registered with a state body and continues its existence and activity for the benefit of the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian state.

3. The Local Council confirms that His Holiness Filaret, the Patriarch of Kiev and All Rus-Ukraine, elected for life by the Local Council of the UOC of the Kiev Patriarchate on October 20-22, 1995, continues to be the head of the UOC of the Kiev Patriarchate.

4. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate continues to be the owner of all funds, all property (movable and immovable) acquired at its own expense or transferred to it by state bodies or local governments, including churches, monasteries, educational institutions, etc. according to treaties and agreements. All bank accounts are accounts of the Kiev Patriarchate as a legal entity.

5. All the monasteries of Kiev: St. Michael's Golden-Domed, St. Theodosius’s, Vydubychi St. Michael’s, as well as St. Nickolas of Boguslav, like all the parishes of Kiev belong to the Kiev Patriarchate Administration. The Kiev Patriarchate continues to own the Kiev Orthodox Theological Academy, founded by Metropolitan Filaret, Deputy Patriarch of Kiev and All Rus-Ukraine in 1992.

6. All the dioceses, monasteries, religious educational institutions, brotherhoods, missions, which are state-registered as religious organizations of the UOC-Kiev Patriarchate continue to belong to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate. Those eparchial administrations and religious communities that have re-registered their Statutes with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine but wish to be part of the Kiev Patriarchate may also belong to the Kiev Patriarchate. The UOC-Kiev Patriarchate also includes those foreign eparchies and parishes that are still affiliated with it.

7. The Tomos of autocephaly, granted to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on January 6, 2019, in Constantinople (Istanbul), does not comply with the statute of the autocephalous Churches, which all autocephalous Churches have, and therefore makes the Ukrainian Orthodox Church dependent on the Constantinople Patriarchate.

8. The Council thanks the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and all the hierarchs of the Mother Church for attempts to solve the Ukrainian church problem, but we are not satisfied with the content of the Tomos of autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

9. The current Statute of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate is the Statute on the Administration of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate (full edition), adopted at the Council on May 13, 2016, and registered by the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine on July 8, 2016.

10. The Local Council calls on all patriots of Ukraine, who hold dear our Ukrainian state, to support the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate during its trials and attempts to destroy it from the inside, which our external enemies rejoice. But the truth is with us, therefore God is with us.