Filaret: There will be no Moscow spirit after autocephaly in Ukraine

Head of the UOC KP Filaret Denisenko

With the recognition of autocephaly in Ukraine, there will be no Moscow spirit, stated the head of the UOC KP Filaret, speaking in the Verkhovna Rada on the Day of the Memory of the Victims of the Holodomor 1932-33, reports “Ukrainska Pravda”.

Filaret said that the Kiev Patriarchate plays a big role in the process of the struggle of Ukrainians for the establishment of their own state and added that now Ukrainian Orthodoxy is waiting for the recognition of autocephaly.

“This idea shivers Moscow because if the Ukrainian Church is recognized as autocephalous, this means that there will be no Moscow in Ukraine, there will be no Moscow spirit,” Filaret said from the rostrum.

The leader of the UOC KP also said that the autocephalous Church in Ukraine would be independent "not only from Moscow but also from Constantinople itself".

Earlier, the text of a letter by Filaret Denisenko appeared online, in which he undertakes to withdraw his candidacy from the election of the head of the Local Church in Ukraine, which should be held at the “Unification Council”. The spokesman for the UOC KP Eustratiy Zoria said that the participants of the “Council” could propose Filaret to become a candidate. Filaret himself did not confirm that he no longer claims for primacy in the SLC.

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