“Without Putin, without Kirill”. Primate of the new Ukrainian Orthodox Church elected
He is Metropolitan Epiphany, right-hand man of the self-proclaimed “Patriarch” Filaret, at the head of an ecclesial structure that until a few months ago was considered a schismatic entity by all the canonical Orthodox Churches. The role of the Ukrainian President Poroshenko
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The Primate of the new Ukrainian
Orthodox Autocephalous Church, independent of the Patriarchate of
Moscow, is Metropolitan Epiphany Dumenko, until now head of the
Metropolitan of Pereyaslav and Bila Tserkva. An authoritative member and candidate supported by the bishops of the so-called “Patriarchate of Kiev”, an ecclesial structure created by the elderly Metropolitan Filaret
and which until a few months ago was considered as a schismatic entity
by all the canonical Orthodox Churches. The new Primate was elected by
the “Council of Unification” called by the Ecumenical Patriarch of
Constantinople Bartholomew I, and held in Kiev at the Cathedral of St.
Sophia. The announcement of the election was given to the multitude of
thousands of Ukrainians gathered in front of the cathedral by the
Ukrainian Minister of Culture: After the announcement, the
new Primate came out of the cathedral together with the Ukrainian
President Petro Poroshenko, the President of the Ukrainian Parliament
Andrij Parubij and Metropolitan Emmanuel of France, the representative
of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
President Poroshenko, in his speech, announced the
creation of the “local autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine”,
noting that the new Church will be “without Putin, without Kirill”
(the Patriarch of Moscow, ed.) but “with God and with Ukraine”. In his
first speech addressed to the multitude present in the square, the new
Primate Epiphany thanked President Poroshenko for his contribution to
the creation of the new ecclesial structure, and also paid tribute to
Metropolitan Filaret - who proclaimed himself “Patriarch of Kiev” in
1995 - calling him “spiritual father of all Ukrainians”.
The Unification Council was attended by
192 representatives of the Orthodox ecclesial realities present in
Ukraine, including more than 40 bishops of the self-proclaimed
“Patriarchate of Kiev” and the dozen bishops of the so-called Ukrainian autocephalous Church. Only
two of the ninety bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church linked to
the Patriarchate of Moscow took part in the assembly for the creation of
the new Ukrainian Church independent of Moscow jurisdiction.
Epiphany, 39 years old, was born in the region of Odessa,
studied at the Ecclesiastical Academy of Kiev and the Faculty of
Philosophy of Athens. He was ordained Hieromonk (priest monk) in 2008,
and then became secretary of Patriarch Filaret, of whom he has so far
been considered a sort of right-hand man. He was ordained bishop in 2009
and became metropolitan in 2013.
The reaction of the Patriarchate of Moscow to the election of Epiphany was not long in coming. Archpriest Nicolay Balashov,
number two in the Department for External Relations of the Patriarchate
of Moscow, defined the Ukrainian Unification Council as a
“non-canonical gathering of individuals, some of whom have - and many
do not even have - legitimate episcopal ordination, under the general
guidance of a layman, the Head of State, and a foreigner, who does not
understand anything of the local language, who elected a non-canonical
“hierarch” as “Primate” adding that “for us this event means absolutely nothing”.
Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, president of the
department for external relations of the Patriarchate of Moscow, even
before the conclusion of the Ukrainian Unification Council, pointed out
that no other Orthodox Church sent messages to that
local assembly. According to Hilarion, “Patriarch Bartholomew’s plan to
persuade the canonical Church in Ukraine to participate in the creation
of a new structure has failed” and the episcopate linked to the
Patriarchate of Moscow, “with the exception of two traitors, has shown
unanimity, firmness and courage. The fate of today’s
“pseudo-Council” is the same as that of other similar meetings that have
taken place in history. Its participants will be erased from the
historical memory of the Church, they will be like “the chaff that the wind blows away””.
The Ecumenical Patriarchate of
Constantinople, in an official statement, expressed “praise to God” and
“great joy and satisfaction” for “the successful completion of the work
of the Unification Council, foundation of the new autocephalous Orthodox
Church of Ukraine, also announcing that the Ecumenical Patriarch
Bartholomew “invited His Beatitude Epiphany to concelebrate the Divine
Liturgy at the Fanar on the great feast of Theophany”, to deliver to him
in that solemn setting “the Tomos of the foundation of the new sister
autocephalous Church”.
On January 6, the Ukrainian President Poroshenko will also receive the autocephaly Tomos
from Bartholomew’s hands, next to the neo-Primate Epiphany.
He announced it himself, in his speech addressed to the festive crowd
in front of the Cathedral of St. Sophia. On the morning of Saturday 15
December, Poroshenko had also exhorted the participants of the
Unification Council with inspired tones. “I address each one of you
directly”, he said, reminding the members of the assembly, “of the colossal responsibility that weighs on you at this moment.
The State,” Poroshenko added, “has done everything it can for its part.
Now the future of Ukraine, the future of our great nation, our freedom,
our state and our spiritual independence
depends on you and only on you”.