Dumenko: Phanar head lifted burden from us imposed by truth opponents
Patriarch Bartholomew and the head of the OCU Epiphany. Photo: AP / Lefteris Pitarakis
Patriarch Bartholomew comforted the "Church of Ukraine" in sorrow and lifted from it the burden imposed by the opponents of truth. The head of the OCU, Epiphany Dumenko, wrote about this in a letter to the Patriarch of Constantinople on the occasion of the second anniversary of the granting of the Tomos of autocephaly.
“For a long time, the Church of Ukraine suffered because of injustice, because of the violation of the canonical order, and fought to assert the truth,” says the letter published on the OCU website. - <...> And the will of the Lord was that generations before us and we ourselves went this way, " For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted" (Matt. 23:12). We endured – and God rewarded our patience. You, Your Holiness, and Mother Church have warmed us with your love, comforted us in sorrow, lifted from us the burdens that were laid by the opponents of truth."
Emphasizing that “from his humble heart and on behalf of the respected Hierarchy, the sacred clergy and the pious people of the Holy Church of Ukraine” he can only speak of gratitude to God and Patriarch Bartholomew. Dumenko wished the head of Phanar “many years, energetic, healthy, fruitful, in the strength of the soul and courage, and to shame those who commit persecution in all kinds of ways against the Mother ship of the Church of the Constantinople throne."
We recall that Patriarch Bartholomew, who previously recognized the dedication and anathema of Filaret imposed by the Russian Orthodox Church, in 2018 named him the former Metropolitan of Kyiv.
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