Church is me: Filaret states that UOC broke away from him in the 90s

Head of UOC KP Filaret

The "patriarch" of the UOC KP said this on the ZiK channel in the program "Historical Truth with Vakhtang Kipiani: Orthodoxy in the Service of the KGB".

The host cited the words of the deceased His Beatitude Metropolitan Vladimir (Sabodan), said in an interview with the Associated Press: "There is no "Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate". There is the "Ukrainian Orthodox Church". And with this statutory name it is registered. The affix "Moscow Patriarchate" appeared much later in order to distinguish it from the "UOC KP", which without adding "KP" cannot exist, since it is a new organization that borrowed part of the name from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church."

The head of the UOC-KP stated: "The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (Kiev Patriarchate is meant – Ed.) is not a new one, but on the contrary it is a continuer of the history of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine."

"And the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which was headed by Metropolitan Vladimir, is new because it broke away from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Who was the Primate of the UOC in 1991? I was," Filaret continued. "Who was the episcopate of the UOC subordinate to, the Moscow Patriarch or Metropolitan Filaret? Metropolitan Filaret."

According to the decision of the Kharkov Council of the UOC, in May 1992, Filaret (Denisenko) was deposed with a ban in priesthood, and His Beatitude Vladimir (Sabodan) was elected as a new metropolitan. This decision was supported and recognized by the entire Orthodox world. Filaret invited to the Council did not appear and refused to obey the decision of the Ukrainian episcopate. In June 1992, he created the UOC KP, which proclaimed itself the successor of the UAOC.

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