It becomes known who UOC-KP delegation "concelebrated" with in Moscow region

The information spread by the Kyiv Patriarchate that the two clerics of the UOC-KP participated in a joint divine service with the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church is not true. The church, reported by the media, does not belong to the canonical Church, but to the schismatics from the so-called ROCOR (V). This was said by the chief-editor of the information-analytical portal "Amen" Vladimir Semenko.

"Using our private channels, we managed to find out that the church, which was mentioned in a post on the site "Credo.ru", in fact belongs not to the legitimate, canonical ROCOR, but to the Vitaly’s schism (the so-called ROCOR (V)), which Filaret and Credo had left out. This is the so-called St. Vladimir parish, located at the address: Moscow region, Istra district, Kholshcheviki station, Glebovsky settlement," wrote Semenko.

Earlier, Credo.ru had reported that "sources in the UOC-KP believe that the concelebration took place at the ROCOR MP Metochion in the Istra district of the Moscow region".

However, in this area there is no "ROCOR MP Metochion", but there is the Moscow deanery of the so-called "South Russian Eparchy of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia". This religious structure is not in communion with the ROCOR and the Moscow Patriarchate, staying in schism.

The site of this religious organization reports that the dean of this "eparchy" is a resident of Ukraine "Bishop" Tikhon Vasilkovsky.

On December 1, at a press conference in Kiev, the head of the Kiev Patriarchate, Filaret, said that members of the delegation of the UOC-KP served the Liturgy and took communion in one of the Moscow Patriarchate churches of the Moscow region.

On December 11, in an interview with the RISU, the speaker of the UOC-KP, Evstratiy Zoria, reiterated that "our two priests have сoncelabrated with a MP priest". However, at the same time he tried to avoid discussing this topic, adding that he was "not very interested in that". It should be noted that neither Filaret nor his spokesman called the church in which it allegedly happened.

The schism in the ROCOR occurred in 2001. After the dismissal of Metropolitan Vitaly from his post, the latter soon went to the Holy Transfiguration Skete (Canada) and stated that he had been forcefully resigned from his post and remained the Metropolitan of the ROCOR. He was followed by a smaller part of the clergy – mainly in Canada, France and Russia. On November 5, 2001, Vitaly renamed the ROCOR into the ROC in Exile (ROCE) in order to make a difference with Laurus’ Synod, but soon the old name was returned and this association was unofficially called ROCOR (V).