“This is a different Church”: Filaret does not accept bans of the OCU

The head of the UOC-KP Filaret Denisenko. Photo: rnbee.ru

The decision of the "Holy Synod" of the OCU to ban Filaret Denisenko from performing "ordinations" and his exclusion from the "Synod" of the OCU have no canonical or legal force since Denisenko is the "primate" of another "Church", according to the official page of the Kyiv Patriarchate.

The press service of the UOC-KP recalled that on June 20, 2019, the Kyiv Patriarchate left the OCU, and “Patriarch” Filaret as the head of the UOC-KP cannot be a member of the “Holy Synod” of another “Church” – the OCU.

It also became known that Filaret personally informed Epiphany about that in a letter dated February 3, 2020, on the eve of the session of the “Holy Synod” of the OCU, which took place on February 4.

In addition, the Kyiv Patriarchate also responded to the ban on Filaret Denisenko to perform “episcopal ordinations”. In particular, the UOC-KP noted that “the recognition of these ordinations as null and void” reminds the decisions made earlier by the Moscow Patriarchate in relation to Denisenko and the “bishops” of the UOC-KP.

The press service of the Kyiv Patriarchate recalled that the vast majority of OCU “bishops” whose “ordinations” were performed by Filaret Denisenko and other “archpastors,” including the “ordination” of the current head of the OCU Epiphany Dumenko, occurred after the Russian Orthodox Church forbade Denisenko to “ordain bishops” and considered his “ordinations” “uncanonical, invalid and null”, and these “episcopal ordinations of the Kyiv Patriarchate” were recognized by Constantinople, Alexandria, and Greek Churches.

The Kyiv Patriarchate emphasized that any decisions of the OCU regarding the UOC-KP or its head Filaret Denisenko “do not have canonical and legal force since this is a different Church”.

As reported earlier, the OCU retroactively forbade Filaret to perform ordinations.

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