Kiev, September 5, 2019
tellerreport.com
While “Patriarch” Philaret Denisenko was once the Ukrainian government’s darling for his leadership of the anti-Russian Ukrainian schismatic movement for 30 years, he now finds himself on the other side of the fence after he departed from the government and Constantinople-created “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” (OCU) to revive the “Kiev Patriarchate” (KP) that he stood at the helm of for so many years.
Thus, although Philaret never submitted documents towards the legal dissolution of the KP even after it merged into the newly-created OCU, the Synod of Bishop of the OCU and the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture teamed up to liquidate his structure for him.
Never one to back down, Philaret took the matter to court, intent on continuing his KP project. And yesterday, the District Administrative Court of Kiev fully satisfied the KP’s petition to prohibit the OCU’s “liquidation committee” from disposing of the KP’s property and to terminate the liquidation of the activities of the KP, Philaret’s structure reports on its Facebook page.
The claim was filed in connection with Oschadbank’s recent closing of KP bank accounts at the best of “Metropolitan” Epiphany Dumenko, the primate of the OCU who was the loyal protégé of Philaret until he came into power.
The lawyers for the KP also filed an application with the National Police of Ukraine to bring criminal charges against the OCU “metropolitan” who heads the liquidation committee for abuse of office.
“Archbishop” Evstraty Zorya, the once loyal sidekick to Philaret and now speaker of the OCU, claims that the court’s ruling “in no way changes the fact that ‘KP’ is, as a legal entity, in a state of liquidation.”
Recall that Philaret also brought a suit against Zorya for the “protection of his honor and dignity.”
Meanwhile, authorities throughout Ukraine continue to re-register parishes of the KP to the OCU. For example, on August 29, the Volyn Provincial State Administration re-registered 48 such communities, reports the Union of Orthodox Journalists.
