FILARET THINKS THAT HE WAS DECEIVED AND SAYS THAT HE
"SIGNED THE
LIQUIDATION OF THE UPTsKP TEMPORARILY
Religiia
v Ukraine, 15 April 2019
On 15 May, there was a press conference in the residence
of the former
patriarch of the UPTsKP, Filaret, regarding the situation that
has developed in
the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (PTsU), where Filaret has the
rank of
metropolitan and at the same time the unofficial status of
"honorary
patriarch." Filaret repeated the claims that he expressed
yesterday: the
president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, and the primate of the
PTsU,
Metropolitan Epifany, violated unofficial agreements to the
effect that after
the creation of the PTsU, Filaret will administer the church and
Epifany will
perform representative functions of the PTsU in the
international arena,
Religiia v Ukraine reports.
"Poroshenko promised one thing and is doing another. . .
. Vladyka
Epifany is avoiding communication with me. I gave to him a
recommendation
originally of what should be done, but he is doing the
opposite," Filaret
complained (here and subsequently quotations are from the
transcript of the
press conference from Tserkvarium), maintaining that both
allegedly promised
him the supreme authority in the PTsU.
However there are not any documents concerning these
agreements.
"The agreements were only oral," Filaret affirmed, and he stated
that
he was deceived and now he regrets that he advanced the
candidacy of Epifany
for primate of the PTsU.
"I signed the liquidation of the Kiev patriarchate
because we
faced the question whether we would receive the tomos or not. In
order to
receive it, it was necessary to become a part of the
patriarchate of
Constantinople. Therefore I signed the liquidation for a time,"
Filaret
thinks; he stated yesterday that the UPTsKP was not liquidated
and it continues
to exist with him, Filaret, as the head.
Also, in Filaret's opinion, after the receipt of the
tomos concerning
autocephaly, the PTsU's hands were untied and it can revise its
charter, its
name, and so forth. Which has recently been proposed by Filaret,
who insists on
elevating the canonical status of the PTsU to the level of a
patriarchate and who
suggests revising the composition of the Synod of the PTsU in
accordance with a
plan he favors (eliminating the rotation of members of the
Synod).
At the same time, Filaret declared: "It is now too early
to speak
about a change in the number of members of the Synod prior to a
council.
Metropolitan Epifany depends on the Holy Synod and the Bishops'
Council. When
it is determined, then it will occur."
Filaret also noted that he is "not interested in how
many bishops
support him and how many do not," because he still is taking the
"straight road" of truth "for the welfare of the Ukrainian
church."
At the same time, the vice-chairman of the Committee on
Affairs of
Culture and Religion of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada, Viktor
Elensky, in a
conversation with Radio Liberty, called attention to the fact
that earlier, in
2018, during the discussion regarding the leadership of the
PTsU, Filaret wrote
to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew that he will not aspire to
church offices.
It should be added that on 15 May 2019, an advisor of
Ukrainian
President Petro Poroshenko and director of the National
Institute of Strategic
Studies, RostislavPavlenko, who took an active part in the
dialogue with the
patriarchate of Constantinople regarding the granting of
autocephaly to the Ukrainian
church, declared that the tomos concerning autocephaly of the
Orthodox Church
of Ukraine cannot be rescinded by the ecumenical patriarch,
unless the
conditions of the tomos are triggered. (tr. by PDS, posted 15
May 2019)
DECEIVED BUT NOT DEFEATED
PTsU Honorary Patriarch Filaret makes harsh charges
against church and
secular authorities at press conference in Kiev
by Alexander Soldatov
Honorary Patriarch Filaret of the Orthodox Church of
Ukraine (PTsU)
accused the primate of the PTsU, Metropolitan Epifany, and
Ukrainian President
Petro Poroshenko of violating agreements, at a press conference,
which he gave
in the morning of 15 May in his Kiev residence. In addition, the
patriarch
declared that Metropolitan Epifany admits an "external
administration" and his lack of freedom in making decisions for
the
administration of the church.
"Epifany is not administering, but he is being
administered,"
Filaret explained. "He told me directly, 'Not everything depends
on me.'
That means, there are forces who are higher than you and they do
not wish for
what you wish for." However, the honorary patriarch evaded a
direct answer
to the question just who it is that administers Epifany, but
from a number of
his statements it became clear that he is talking about the
Moscow patriarchate
and the political leadership of the Russian Federation. "These
are
anti-Ukrainian forces that have fought against the Ukrainian
autocephalous
church for almost 30 years," Filaret said at the start of the
meeting,
explaining the reasons for the crisis in the PTsU. "Now forces
with whom I
built the Kiev patriarchate have clamped down on this. They
respect me in
words, but they say that they do not need a patriarchate."
The former primate of the UPTsKP said that an agreement
that he reached
with Petro Poroshenko, Metropolitan Epifany, and all bishops of
the PTsU on the
eve of the unification council on 15 December 2018 consisted in
the fact that
in the future Filaret will administer the church within Ukraine
and Epifany
will represent it in external relations. However immediately
after the granting
of the tomos concerning autocephaly, these agreements were
violated and at the
first session of the PTsU Synod in February, they even tried to
retire Filaret.
"Vladyka Epifany avoids communication with me," the PTsU
honorary patriarch
acknowledged. "He does not phone and he says to the outside
world that he
respects the patriarch and considers him to be his father. These
are the words,
but the deeds are the opposite."
Filaret expressed regret that in December of last year
he advanced the
candidacy of Epifany for the position of primate of the church.
"I trusted
him, that he would take a straight road, but he went awry,"
Filaret said.
The honorary patriarch sees his task as the gradual recognition
of the status
of patriarchate for the PTsU, which he says even the
patriarchate of
Constantinople has not opposed: "Metropolitan Emmanuel [exarch
of the
patriarch of Constantinople who conducted the council in Kiev on
15 December]
said to me that we are not obliged to clear our decisions with
Constantinople
after the granting to us of autocephaly," Filaret reported. "I
did
not deceive the ecumenical patriarch," he responded to a
question from one
of the participants in the press conference. "I accept the
tomos, which
gives to us the status of the metropolitanate of Kiev. In the
future we want to
have patriarchal status, but it is necessary to work on unifying
into one
church for that."
It is for "surrendering" the aspiration for patriarchal
status that the honorary patriarch reproaches his opponents in
the PTsU.
"If the Ukrainian church renounces the status of a
patriarchate," he
says, "then there will remain in Ukraine one patriarchate—the
Moscow
patriarchate. We have ourselves eliminated the commemoration of
the patriarchate
of Kiev." Even in the UGKTs [Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church],
whose
patriarchal status is not recognized by Rome, they refer to
their primate as a
patriarch, Filaret recalled. In his opinion, the patriarchal
status of the
Ukrainian church is an inevitable consequence of the existence
of an
independent Ukrainian state. "Presidents change, but the state,
the
people, and the church remain," he noted.
At the same time, Filaret spoke positively about the
election of
Vladimir Zelensky as president of Ukraine, who visited the
honorary patriarch
in his residence on 30 April. "He said that he will not
interfere in
church affairs," Filaret reported, mentioning also the oligarch
Igor
Kolomoisky, whom many in Ukraine consider the chief sponsor of
Zelensky:
"Kolomoisky acknowledges that Filaret created the patriarchate
of
Kiev."
The granting of the tomos concerning the autocephaly of
the
metropolitanate of Kiev, in his opinion, "did not strike out"
the
entire history of the UPTsKP before 15 December 2018. "I am 100
percent
sure," Filaret said, "that the Ukrainian church will be
recognized as
a patriarchate by all local Orthodox churches. . . . Rejecting
the Ukrainian
church is a blow to the whole of world Orthodoxy," since by way
of numbers
this church (in the event of the unification of all of its
"branches") is second only to the Russian Orthodox Church of the
Moscow Patriarchate.
On the day before the press conference, the honorary patriarch of the PTsU distributed his appeal to the whole Ukrainian flock in which, point by point, he laid out the future program of his actions. (tr. by PDS, posted 15 May 2019)
FILARET DOES NOT AGREE WITH NAME ORTHODOX CHURCH OF
UKRAINE, SINCE IT
CUTS OFF UKRAINIANS ABROAD
Interfax-Religiia,
15 May 2019
Filaret Denisenko, the "honorary patriarch" of the new
Ukrainian church, stated his disagreement with the name Orthodox
Church of
Ukraine for the local church, since it excludes Orthodox
Ukrainians who live
outside the borders from membership in it.
"Why do we not agree with the name Orthodox Church of
Ukraine or
in Ukraine? Because all autocephalous churches have an
adjectival name. .
. Only our church
is named in a
way unlike others, not the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, but the
Orthodox Church
of Ukraine. What is hidden behind this? It signifies that
Orthodox Ukrainians
outside the borders of Ukraine do not belong to the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church.
And this is stated in the tomos," an appeal by Filaret to the
flock that
was made public Wednesday says.
The "honorary patriarch" says, Orthodox Ukrainians who
live
outside the borders of Ukraine are angered by this since they
want to belong to
their own native church.
"All autocephalous Orthodox churches retain their own emigration for themselves, except for the Greek churches. The whole Greek diaspora is canonically subordinate to the ecumenical patriarch. Therefore we also should be called the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and not the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, so that our Ukrainian emigration will have the right to belong to their own native church," Filaret summed up. (tr. by PDS, posted 15 May 2019)
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