Ukraine's newly formed independent Orthodox church has vowed to continue its mission, after supporters of Filaret Denisenko, from the country's former self-styled Kiev Patriarchate, announced they were restoring their own separate confession in defiance of the new church's tomos, or founding decree.
“The assembly which gathered today at Filaret's personal will has no legal nor canonical consequences - this is not a schism, but just a small part of the church branching out into some new structure", the Orthodox Church of Ukraine said in a statement. “It is not the UOC-Kiev Patriarchate and it cannot be. Nor can this assembly question the validity of the tomos or the authority of the OCU. The only consequence is that Filaret will no longer have any powers in the OCU".
The church was reacting to the 20 June assembly in Kiev's St Volodymyr cathedral, convened by the self-styled Patriarch-emeritus Filaret, after he complained of being sidelined by the UOC's newly elected leader, Metropolitan Epiphanius Dumenko, and accused the new church of replacing its former dependence on Moscow with submission to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
It said Kiev Patriarchate leaders had unanimously agreed "to unite and join" with the UOC at its unification council last December, adding that 90-year-old Filaret had recognised the primacy of Metropolitan Epiphanius "repeatedly, deliberately and publicly, verbally and in writing". Claims to churches and monastic buildings by a "non-existent religious association" would have no legal validity, the UOC added, while last week's assembly would also carry no authority.
Russia's Orthodox Church poured scorn on the latest moves, as proof that the new church had failed. "There's nothing surprising that an edifice built to suit seasonal political interests, rather than on holy church canons, is rapidly starting to disintegrate", Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, deputy external relations director of the Moscow Patriarchate, told Russia's Interfax news agency.
Russian Orthodox leaders cut all ties with Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople over his "tomos of autocephaly" formally established the Ukrainian church on 6 January, and are campaigning against its recognition by other Orthodox churches.
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