Kiev, November 22, 2019
Photo: pomisna.info
Bishop Isaiah (Slaninka) of Šumperk of the Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia concelebrated with hierarchs of the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” on Wednesday, as previously reported, and again yesterday.
Bp. Isaiah concelebrated with the unrecognized OCU not only without the blessing of his primate His Beatitude Metropolitan Rostislav, but with full knowledge that he would face canonical penalties from the Holy Synod for disobeying his primate.
According to a report on the official OCU website, not only did Bp. Isaiah concelebrate yesterday, but he also gifted the OCU with relics of St. Wenceslaus, the Duke of Bohemia, on the occasion of the patronal feast of St. Michael’s Monastery, where Epiphany Dumenko serves.
Bp. Isaiah was consecrated in 2015 by decision of Constantinople hierarchs Emmanuel of Gaul and Arsenios of Austria, without the blessing or recognition of His Beatitude Metropolitan Rostislav or the Czech-Slovak Holy Synod, in order to create an “alternative Synod” in the Church. The Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia was granted full and total autocephaly by its Mother Church, the Russian Orthodox Church, in the 1950s, but the tomos of autocephaly forced upon it by Constantinople in 1998 allows for such interference from Constantinople hierarchs.
Bp. Isaiah is also the Deputy Chairman of the monastery/”Association” that the Patriarchate of Constantinople registered in Vilemov, Czech Republic on October 1 without the blessing of Met. Rostislav or the Czech-Slovak Holy Synod. The Chairman is the same Metropolitan Arsenios of Austria who was responsible for having Bp. Isaiah consecrated as a hierarch.
