Decisions of OCU Synod may be appealed due to internal conflicts

OCU "Bishops" Simeon Shostatsky and Makariy Maletich

Some participants of the first in the history "Synod" of the OCU, which was held in the Metropolitan's house at the Cathedral of St. Sophia of Kiev on February 5, were dissatisfied with the organization of the meeting and those who attended it. According to the “Glavkom” edition, “some influential hierarchs of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine” do not exclude that the Ecumenical Patriarchate may not recognize the decisions adopted at this “Synod”.

It is noted that the "hierarchs" invited to the meeting at the St. Sophia of Kiev did not even know for sure that the "Synod" would take place.

“Everyone was invited just to the meeting,” the edition cites its source, who was close to the head of the OCU Epiphany Dumenko.

“The first meeting of the Synod of the new Church ... we don’t know the agenda ... As for the positions, nobody spoke to me. We don’t even know who will be members of the Synod today,” said the former Metropolitan Simeon (Shostatsky) of Vinnitsa and Bar before the beginning of the “historic” meeting.

The list of members of the first “Holy Synod” was called into question by many participants in the meeting. “Archbishop” Eustratiy Zoria tried to explain the situation. He made it clear that there are inconsistencies in the constituent documents of the OCU and different “bishops” read them differently.

“Metropolitan Epiphany consulted the Ecumenical Patriarch and his representatives,” Zoria assured journalists. “No violation of the Tomos.” There is no violation of the Statute in this. Such a composition of the Synod corresponds to the order that exists in the Patriarchate of Constantinople and which is introduced by the Statute of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.”

However, not everyone agreed with such conclusions, including “Metropolitan” Mikhail Zinkevich, who had previously been considered as a candidate for the post of the OCU “primate”.

“According to the Statute and Tomos, I must be a member of the Holy Synod. But I was not invited to the meeting, I did not attend it. I have no idea what an assembly was held on February 5th. Bishop Simeon (“Bishop” Simeon Zinkevich of Dnepropetrovsk and Krivoy Rog – Ed.) told me that there would be a meeting,” the metropolitan was indignant and stressed that the event that took place at the St. Sophia of Kiev can be called the Bishops’ Assembly but not the Synod.

“There is legislation, there is a church statute, there is the Tomos, which is only two months and according to which we must live. Everything else is non-canonical, wrong, is not viable,” Mikhail Zinkevich is convinced.

But the variant reading of the Tomos is not the only reason for the conflict around the Synod.

“There is one person who does not give up any more and leads the way he likes,” complained the former “primate” of the UAOC Makariy Maletich about Filaret Denisenko and suggested that the decisions made at this Synod could be appealed. “I expressed (in the meeting) my opinion as a former primate so that there would be no more such things because nobody consulted anyone (regarding the appointments of the Synod members – Ed.). There are many consequences here. There are bishops, let them turn, if they wish, to the Ecumenical Patriarch. It is their right.”

We recall that 11 representatives of the new church organization took part in the first “Synod” of the OCU, including the “honorary patriarch” Filaret Denisenko, who due to illness did not attend the enthronement of the newly elected “head” Epiphany Dumenko. According to the decision of the "Synod", Filaret will continue to lead the parishes and monasteries of Kiev, which had been under him as the "Patriarch of Kiev and All Rus-Ukraine".

As the UOJ reported, “Bishop” Adrian Kulik of the UOC KP shared on social networks the opinion of the “bishops” of the OCU who believe that the Synod that held the other day was just a “rehearsal”.

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