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20 June 2019, 18:51Filaret thinks Ukraine can have 3 Orthodox Churches
Kiev, June 20, Interfax - "Honorary patriarch" of Kiev and All Rus-Ukraine Filaret Denisenko permits the existence of three Orthodox Churches in Ukraine.
"Then Ukraine will have the Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Orthodox Church in Ukraine that has a tomos - by a limited tomos subordinating it to the Ecumenical Patriarchate - and there will be a third independent church - the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate," Filaret said to journalists in Kiev on Thursday.
He said that if the Orthodox Church of Ukraine led by Yepifaniy Dumenko will wish to unite with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate (UOC-KP), nobody will be against it, if not, then it will exist separately.
The "honorary patriarch" said that on Thursday the Local Council cancelled the liquidation of the Kiev Patriarchate: "Firstly, we cancelled the liquidation of the Kiev Patriarchate. On the contrary, we confirmed the existence of the Kiev Patriarchate, in particular as a legal entity owning property and monasteries, educational institutions that used to belong to it."
He also said that the Local Council elected two bishop candidates.
Asked how UOC-KP will be recovering its property, Filaret voiced hope that it will not have to fight to get it back.
"We hope that the bishoprics realize that they belong to a different church and they have to belong to their own independent Ukrainian church. They will decide themselves. We won't pressure them," the patriarch said.
The meeting that Filaret held on Thursday and called the Local Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate cancelled the December 15, 2018 resolution of the Bishops' Council on the liquidation of UOC-KP. |
