Primate" of the new religious organization Epiphany Dumenko
The head of the OCU
conducts secret negotiations with the Local Churches and is confident
that some of them will recognize his structure before the end of the
year.
During 2019, several Local Orthodox Churches should recognize the OCU,
the head of the new church structure, Epiphany Dumenko, prophesied in
an interview with the first Ukrainian information channel “5 Channel”.
According
to Epiphany Dumenko, the representatives of his religious organization
are negotiating with some Local Churches in order to have them recognize
the OCU; however, they are doing it secretly.
“We
are negotiating with several Orthodox Churches but not officially. In
order for this process of recognition not to be spoilt. I think that
during this year, several Local Orthodox Churches should gradually
recognize autocephaly – the action of the Ecumenical Patriarch in
relation to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” said the “primate” of the
OCU.
According
to him, each Church should review the issue of the Ukrainian
autocephaly and study it in detail. Since this process takes time, as
well as the adoption of a conciliar decision, no one just had time to
recognize the new church structure, believes Epiphany.
“Now
there are several positive messages from representatives of some Local
Churches, which, in some ways, are wavering,” said the head of the OCU.
“But I believe that in the near future several Churches will recognize
this act of proclaiming autocephaly by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
(OCU – Ed.).”
In
his opinion, the reason why the OCU has not yet been recognized lies in
the actions of Moscow, which allegedly “succeeds in counteracting from
the outside”.
Recall that the Jerusalem Patriarchate refused to allow the delegation of the OCU to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on Great Saturday. “Anyone
can come to the temple and receive the Holy Fire. This is allowed to
everybody because of the holiday. However, to get inside the shrine, as
well as to hold a communal prayer there or to serve in the Cathedral of
Jerusalem on the eve is not permitted for your second Church (OCU –
Ed.),” said the representative of the Jerusalem Patriarchate then.
On May 2, 2019, an Easter letter concerning the situation in Ukraine was
published on the official website of the Kythira and Antikythira
Metropolis, which the hierarch of the Greek Orthodox Church,
Metropolitan Seraphim of Kythira, sent to Patriarch Bartholomew of
Constantinople and the Primates of the Local Orthodox Churches. In this
letter, Vladyka Seraphim stressed that the head of the new church
structure, Epiphany Dumenko, received his ordination and all three
priesthood degrees (deacon, presbyter and bishop) from the former
Metropolitan of Kiev Filaret – “actually excommunicated, anathematized
and schismatic”, which makes Dumenko himself, according to the Sacred
Canons and Church Tradition, deprived of any sacred degree, "and it is
impossible for this accomplished act to be cured retroactively".
“I
humbly and zealously think that we are confronted with a big canonical
problem, which lies in the so-called reinstatement and recognition of
the two existing schismatic parts as ‘Autocephalous Ukrainian Church’,”
wrote the hierarch of the Greek Church.