Khmelnitsky and Gorlovka, Ukraine, February 18, 2019
Photo: fialco.org Despite the ongoing persecution and propaganda against the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church that has only increasing since December 15’s “unification council” and the granting of a tomos of autocephaly to schismatics by Constantinople on January 6, its dioceses are remaining faithful to it. A number of them have already openly expressed their support for the Church’s canonical status as a self-governing autonomous body and for their primate His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine, and now the Khmelnitsky and Gorlovka Dioceses have joined them.
Clergy of the Khmelnitsky Diocese gathered in their regular session of the Diocesan Council on February 13 where they expressed their unanimous support for their ruling bishop His Eminence Metropolitan Anthony of Khmelnitsky and Starokostiantinov and for the primate of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine and their loyalty to the canonical Church, reports the diocesan press service.
Photo: gorlovka-eparhia.com.ua The Gorlovka Diocese also declared its loyalty to Christ in the Orthodox Church and to Met. Onuphry at a meeting of clergy and parish council representatives yesterday, reports the diocesan website.
“The participants unanimously expressed their support for the primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine. According to the results of meetings held in the parishes, the clergy and parishioners confirmed their desire to be in the bosom of the canonical Orthodox Church,” the diocese’s message reads.
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The same support for the canonical Church and Met. Onuphry has also been expressed by the Dioceses of Volyn, Dzhankoi, Mogilev-Podolsky, Uman, Ovruch, Berdyansk, Nikolaev, Nizhyn, Nova Kakhovka, Izium, Crimea, Chernigov and Novgorod-Siversk, Kirovograd, Zhytomyr, Lugansk, Mukachevo, Alexandria, Sumy, Romny, Konotop-Glukhov, Zaporozhye, Kharkov, Voznesensk, Tulchin, Rivne, Kherson, Severodonetsk, Odessa, Dnipropetrovsk, Krivoy Rog, Kamenka, Zaporozhye, Poltava, Vinnitsa, and Khust, and the clergy of the Brovary Region outside Kiev and of the Tatarbunary Region in Odessa.
Of those, the Severodonetsk, Voznesensk, Tulchin, Rivne, Zhytomyr, Nizhyn, Kamenka, Konotop-Glukhov, Simferopol, Mogilev-Podolsky, and Tulchin Dioceses have reaffirmed their loyalty to the Ukrainian Church yet again following December 15’s scandalous “unification council.”
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