Kiev Unification Council Opening Delayed, Only 2 UOC-MP Priests Among Attendees - Reports

Fakhir Rizvi Published December 15, 2018 | 04:52 PM

The opening of the unification council of the Ukrainian Orthodox churches in Kiev, which was due to take place earlier on Saturday, has been delayed, as only two representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) arrived to attend the event, media reported.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th December, 2018) The opening of the unification council of the Ukrainian Orthodox churches in Kiev, which was due to take place earlier on Saturday, has been delayed, as only two representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) arrived to attend the event, media reported.

� The Ukrainian authorities and the newly created church want to get a tomos from the Constantinople patriarch on autocephaly. However, the tomos may be obtained only by a leader of the "unified" Ukrainian church. The process of choosing the leader of the new independent Ukrainian Orthodox church and adopting the structure's statute was due to start on Saturday morning.

According to Greece's Romfea new agency, the Patriarchate of Constantinople demands that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko delivers on its promise that at least 10 bishops of the UOC-MP, which has been the only canonical Orthodox church in Ukraine for hundreds of years, will attend the event.

Only two bishops of the UOC-MP have reportedly arrived for the council � Metropolitan Simeon of Vinnytsia and Bar and Metropolitan Alexander of Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky and Vishnevoye.

The head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kiev Patriarchate (UOC-KP), Filaret, arrived for the council without patriarch's koukoulion on his head, according to the media outlet.

Ukrainian media, meanwhile, reported that the event had been delayed, as the participants were allegedly waiting for Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew's arrival, with the council expected to begin later in the afternoon.

Back in October, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate refused to take part in the unification council.

The Moscow Patriarchate calls the situation around the autocephaly the "legalization of schism," saying that it would have catastrophic consequences and would affect millions of Christians in Ukraine and other countries, "and has already broken the Eucharistic communion" with the Patriarchate of Constantinople.