Filaret about the head of OCU: Dumenko is not a primate at all

Filaret and Epiphany. Photo: 24.ua

Filaret Denisenko is not an "honorary patriarch", while Epiphany Dumenko is not the head of the OCU. Andrey Marutsak, “the chancellor of the Kyiv Patriarchate”, stated this in an address to the media, published on the UOC-KP's Facebook page on Wednesday, September 22.

“His Holiness Filaret is not any ‘honorary patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine’, as some mass media report incorrectly,” said the “hierarch” of the UOC-KP. "This is an explicit fake and falsehood, designed to hide the betrayal and true immoral attitude of Metropolitan Epiphany to his spiritual father, Patriarch Filaret."

He stressed that Filaret is the head of a separate confession and "a real, not an honorary patriarch", while "Metropolitan Epiphany (Dumenko) is not the Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, since he was not elected at the Local Council of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine."

“The leadership of Metropolitan Epiphanius (Dumenko) is non-canonical. This is the truth that not only church people, but the entire Ukrainian society should know,” added Marutsak, urging the media to take into account these remarks of the UOC-KP and convey truthful information to people.

Earlier, the UOC-KP was outraged that Filaret was not invited to official events on the occasion of the anniversary of Ukraine's Independence and declared that one should not honor another's patriarch at the expense of humiliating their own.

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