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Orthodox Church of Ukraine strips Filaret of Kyiv eparchy

The Synod chose how to punish the defiant honorary patriarch.

Orthodox Church of Ukraine strips Filaret of Kyiv eparchy
Photo: cerkva.inf

The Synod of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine has stripped Honorary Patriarch Filaret (Denysenko) of his canonical rights and duties related to the management of the Kyiv eparchy.

All the parishes and monasteries of Kyiv which until 15 December 2018 had been managed by the now disbanded Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate were transferred under control of Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine Epifaniy (Dumenko).

Filaret will remain a member of the eparchy of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine for his outstanding service to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church but his allies – Metropolitan of Bilhorod and Oboyan Iosaf (Shybayev) and Valuysk Bishop Petr (Moskalev) – were removed from the eparchy.

Filaret was also granted the right to ask the Synod to review his future status in the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

The Synod of the Orthodox Church ruled that the church meeting, which Filaret held on 20 June, did not have any authority to decide on the restoration of the Kyiv Patriarchate.

The entire UOC of the Kyiv Patriarchate, like the entire Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, merged into the local Orthodox Church of Ukraine on 15 December 2018. Accordingly, no decisions, orders or other documents issued on behalf of the Kyiv Patriarchate or its statutory bodies after the registration of the Kyiv Metropolis of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine on 30 January 2019, have no canonical or legal force and are not enforceable.

On 20 June, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, headed by Filaret, was restored in Kyiv. Two senior clergy members from Russia joined him in his dissent from the Orthodox Church of Ukraine - Archbishop Iosaf of Belgorod and Oboya (Shybayev) and Valuysk Bishop Petr (Moskalev). The same day, two more future bishops of the UOC-KP - Archimandrite Andriy (Marutsak) and Hieromonk Ilya (Zelensky) were elected.

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