Head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate Filaret has commented on the election of Onufriy as new Head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate by saying that he will hold a dialogue on unification of his church only with the patriotically-minded clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.
“The Bishop’s Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow
Patriarchate elected non-patriotically minded head,” Filaret said on air
on Channel Five TV on Wednesday evening, Aug. 13.
In particular, Filaret noted that he did not support the choice of
archbishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate
for several reasons: Onufriy was against autocephaly of the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church in 1992, he doesn’t support the association agreement
with the European Union, he has refused to help the Ukrainian army and
he does not want to recognize Moscow as an aggressor.
“All this say that he [Onufriy] isn’t a patriot, and if he isn’t a
patriot, he won’t defend the interests of the Ukrainian church, he will
advocate the interests of the Russian church,” Filaret said.
