“Signs of collapse”: why the Ukrainian schismatic Filaret does not recognize the abolition of his church

The head of the schismatic Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate (UOC-KP) Filaret said that his church structure continues to exist, despite the words of the head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (PCU) Epiphanius about its liquidation.

“Metropolitan Epiphanius and the Holy Synod declared that they had completed the liquidation of the Kiev Patriarchate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate. It is not true! The church cannot be liquidated, ”Filaret said in a statement posted on the official website of the UOC-KP.

Filaret also sarcastically reacted to the decision to leave him a residence in Kiev.

“Thank you to the Primate, His Beatitude Metropolitan Epiphanius and the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, for showing mercy to me at their meeting on December 5, 2019: they did not throw the 90-year-old patriarch out onto the street as they intended to do this, but left them to live for life in the premises of the Kiev Patriarchate on Ul. Pushkinskaya, 36, which I built during the difficult Soviet times for the church, and to serve in the Vladimir Cathedral. Thanks again for the fact that conscience did not allow such a crime to be committed, ”Filaret said.

He emphasized that he would fight "against the raider seizure of the property of the Kiev Patriarchate," and accused the Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in provoking a religious conflict in Ukraine.

“By its decisions, the Synod of the PCU demonstrated its dependence on the Greek tradition, introducing changes to the Divine Liturgy, and, it seems to me, unconsciously preparing a religious war in Ukraine,” Filaret concludes in his address.

Roman Lunkin, head of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society of the Institute of Europe at the Russian Academy of Sciences, said in an interview with RT that Patriarch Filaret is now trying with all his might to regain those positions and the power that he lost after the creation of the PCU.

“In the era before the emergence of the PCU, Filaret was perceived by a certain part of Ukrainian society as a national Orthodox figure. Now he has lost this status. Now he wants to be remembered, ”the expert explained.

However, he noted that attempts to restore the so-called Kiev Patriarchate are unlikely to succeed.

“Now Filaret has intensified, because the space on which he can exist has sharply decreased. He had only the Vladimir Church in Kiev, then his power does not extend. The tragedy of the situation is that the Kiev Patriarchate is, in fact, Patriarch Filaret himself. As long as he lives, this patriarchy will also exist, ”said Lunkin.

• Petro Poroshenko and the head of the PCU Epiphanius
• Reuters
• © Gleb Garanich

Dissenters cathedral

The so-called Orthodox Church of Ukraine was formed by the merger of two schismatic structures: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.

This was done with the filing and with the active support of the then president Petro Poroshenko. He sought to create in Ukraine a new local church that would not be connected with Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.

At the same time, Poroshenko failed to achieve the main thing - to attract to this project the only canonical, and at the same time the most numerous Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the country of the Moscow Patriarchate. The vast majority of its bishops ignored the schismatic “unification council”.

The result of Poroshenko's efforts was the tomos of autocephaly, which was given to the head of the PCU Epiphanius by the Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople on January 6, 2019. The Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox churches of the Moscow Patriarchate, in response to this, severed Eucharistic communion with Constantinople.

Bartholomew’s decision to provide PCU with autocephaly did not meet with understanding in the Orthodox world. In addition to Phanar, only the Alexandrian and Hellas Orthodox churches supported the new schismatic church structures. The remaining 12 Orthodox local churches did not do this.

Filaret against

However, the unity of schismatics achieved at the “Unification Council” soon cracked. In May 2019, the head of the UOC-KP Filaret said that if he knew about the contents of the tomos before serving it, he would refuse to accept it, since it puts the new Ukrainian church structure in a position dependent on Constantinople. The following month, the UOC-KP announced that it did not recognize itself abolished, and held on December 15, 2018 the “unification council” that it considered null and void.

“We had a local council of the UOC-KP, which does not recognize the decision of the council on December 15 to liquidate the Kiev Patriarchate ... Metropolitan Epiphanius considers me (the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. - RT ) or does not consider someone in his church - it does not matter to me ", - quotes Filaret's words" Strana.ua ".

• Kiev Pechersk Lavra in Kiev
• RIA News

At the end of July 2019, 90-year-old Filaret turned for help to the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky, asking him to intervene in the situation and not allow him to liquidate the UOC-KP as a legal entity.

“We inform you that neither the leadership of the PCU, nor the liquidation commission created by him, have anything to do with the UOC-KP. I ask for your direct intervention and stop this chaos, ”Filaret said then.

In this statement, he also called the procedure for issuing tomos "direct deception", which was carried out with the "direct anti-popular participation of Poroshenko" and Bartholomew. He also bluntly stated that the UOC-KP does not consider itself part of the PCU.

“Having received such an undesirable dependence, I and the faithful of the UOC-KP immediately began the fight against the enslaving deal, left the PCU and held a local council of the UOC-KP. However, a raider attack on the property of the UOC-KP is now beginning, and this raiding is personally led by Metropolitan Epiphanius, Primate of the HRC, ”Filaret said.

It is worth noting that the data on the number of parishes of the UOC-KP are very outdated: it is not possible to establish reliably how many of these parishes passed to the PCU after its formation. Filaret himself in October 2019 noted that he could not name the exact number of parishes that remained faithful to the UOC-KP.

“Today we have five bishops, how many clergy and parishes, I can’t say. Now I do not know which parishes in different dioceses remained within the UOC-KP. Because there are parishes throughout Ukraine that have not re-registered their charters with the PCU, ”he quoted“ 112 Ukraine ”as saying.

“Zelensky will not help”

Filaret does not want to admit defeat and will defend his interests to the end, said Roman Silantyev, member of the expert council for conducting state religious studies examination under the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. At the same time, official Kiev will not intervene in the situation, he said.

“The Ukrainian authorities will try to distance themselves from the conflict, since in this case Zelensky is unprofitable to participate in this confrontation,” the expert said in an interview with RT.

A similar point of view is shared by Roman Lunkin.

“Zelensky from the very beginning quite clearly defined his position on the church issue, stating that he would not intervene in religious affairs, especially in relations between different churches,” the expert concluded.

Silantyev added that today you can observe the “signs of collapse” of the project under the name of PCU, however for some time it will continue to exist by inertia, supported by supporters and interested external forces.