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According to
the honorary patriarch, the church should work with the government on
the matter. Filaret, who is an Honorary Patriarch of the Orthodox Church
of Ukraine, says the receipt of the tomos of autocephaly of the
Orthodox Church of Ukraine is only launching the process of unification
of Ukrainian Orthodoxy.
The cleric’s comments came as he spoke at the Holy Protection
Cathedral in Ukraine’s western city of Rivne, according to an UNIAN
correspondent. According to him, “the process of unification of
Ukrainian Orthodoxy has just begun. But as we believed in 1992 that we
would one day receive a tomos (when very few people believed in it), we
also believe today that we will unite all of Orthodoxy in Ukraine into a
single local Ukrainian Orthodox church.»
«God will also create conditions for everyone to be part of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church, but we need to work together with the
government,” Filaret stated.
On December 15, the Unification Council of representatives of
Ukrainian Orthodox churches elected Epifaniy, Metropolitan of
Pereyaslavl and Bila Tserkva a leader of the new Orthodox Church of
Ukraine.
On January 6, in the St. George Cathedral in Istanbul, Ecumenical
Patriarch Bartholomew handed to Epifaniy the tomos granting autocephaly
to the new Orthodox Church of Ukraine in a move that marked Ukraine’s
ultimate release from under Russia’s religious grip which the Kremlin
has systemically exploited in geopolitical games of influence.
Source: UNIAN