Ex-metropolitan Simeon appears in the Panagia presented by Patriarch Kirill

Ex-Metropolitan Simeon (Shostatsky) with a gift from Patriarch Kirill. Photo: Facebook

Metropolitan Simeon (Shostatsky), currently a “hierarch” of the OCU, banned from the priesthood on July 25, 2019, appeared before his parishioners at the “divine service” dedicated to the celebration of the 1031th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus in Vinnitsa Cathedral wearing the panagia presented to him by Patriarch Kirill. The corresponding photo was posted on his Facebook page by another metropolitan, banned from the priesthood, Alexander (Drabinko).

On that day, the “hierarchs” of the OCU served a moleben service, after which they held a ceremony of raising the national Ukrainian flag near the Cathedral.

The panagia itself, which the ex-Metropolitan Simeon received in Moscow as a gift from the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill, had been made to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Holy Council and the restoration of the patriarchate in the Russian Orthodox Church.

The UOJ possesses a photograph of the reverse side of the panagia.

Recall, the former ruling hierarch of the Vinnitsa Eparchy of the UOC Simeon (Shostatsky) called for the protection of the Cathedral in Vinnitsa from the ideology of the “Russian world” and named the members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church a devil's weapon.

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