Translated by Ollie Richardson & Angelina Siard

15:55:47
11/10/2018

rusvesna.ru/strana.ua

The Constantinople Patriarchate has removed the anathema from the schismatic Filaret and the head of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church Metropolitan Macarius.

This information was confirmed by the deacon of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate Mikhail Omelyan. Both priests addressed the patriarchate earlier, referring to the right of an appeal, as a result of which their canonical dignity was restored.

Besides this, the Synod of the Constantinople Patriarchate recognised as illegal the “annexation of the Kiev Metropolitanate by the Russian church in 1686”.

This was stated by the press secretary of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate Evstratiy Zorya.

“Information simultaneously arrived from several sources about two expected decisions of the Synod of Ecumenical Patriarchate.

1. About the satisfaction of the appeal of Patriarch Filaret (and also the appeal of Metropolitan Macarius).

2. About the recognition of the annexation of the Kiev Metropolitanate by the Russian church in 1686 as illegal,” he wrote on his social network page.

If the anathema was indeed removed from Filaret and Macarius, then it theoretically clears the path for the granting of autocephaly – after all, it is mainly supported by the congregation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate (UOC-KP) and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. And without the consent of both hierarches, it is unlikely that this congregation with all its parishes will switch to another church organisation.

On the other hand, if Constantinople indeed restores the Kiev Metropolitanate, then it will be a church under the direct control of Bartholomew, and not Filaret. At least at first. And the current head of the UOC-KP will be forced to renounce the title of patriarch and to become a metropolitan.

However, if he becomes the head of the Kiev Metropolitanate a la 1686, then only about a third of the territory of Ukraine will be subordinated to him – mainly in the Northwest of the country.

“If this is true, and Filaret was rehabilitated, then Ecumenical priests have lost their marbles. They can’t not know that this ‘devil in a cassock’ kindled war in Ukraine and asked for weapons. Such a decision nullifies the legitimacy of the ‘Ecumenical Patriarchate,’ wrote the journalist Dmitry Vasilets.

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