Kiev Metropolitan Refuses To Meet With Constantinople Exarchs Over Canon Violation -UOC-MP

Fahad Shabbir (@FahadShabbir) Published September 24, 2018 | 08:10 PM

The Metropolitan Onufriy of Kiev and All Ukraine has refused to meet with the exarchs of the Constantinople Patriarchate who arrived in Ukraine because the exarchs arrived without observing the proper canonical procedures, which the Metropolitan strictly upholds, Vasily Anisimov, the head of the UOC-MP's press service, told Sputnik on Monday.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th September, 2018) The Metropolitan Onufriy of Kiev and All Ukraine has refused to meet with the exarchs of the Constantinople Patriarchate who arrived in Ukraine because the exarchs arrived without observing the proper canonical procedures, which the Metropolitan strictly upholds, Vasily Anisimov, the head of the UOC-MP's press service, told Sputnik on Monday.

Vladimir Legoyda, spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church, posted on his Telegram channel earlier on Monday that Onufriy did not meet with the exarchs of the Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, which was in line with what he said at the latest extra sitting of the Synod.

"There is one legitimate bishop in Kiev, recognized by everybody, and this is His Beautitude Metropolitan Onifriy. According to the church rules, all the clergymen arriving in another city should know its bishop. Those arriving should first gain his blessing to work there, and only then get down to their business.

This has not been done. His Beautitude follows the church canons strictly in this regard. As soon as the exarchs were appointed, he said that he would not meet with them," Anisimov said.

In mid-September, two exarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople started working in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate (UOC-KP), which came as part of Constantinople's preparations to grant autocephaly to the UOC-KP. The move, which supports Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's aspiration to create a single local autocephalous church in the country based on the non-canonical Ukrainian orthodox churches, was strongly criticized by the Russian Orthodox Church. It has slammed the measures as anti-canonical and an attempt to provoke a schism in international Orthodoxy.