No Local Church hierarchs except Phanar reps attend Epifaniy’s enthronement
The enthronement of OCU head Epifaniy Dumenko took place at St. Sophia Cathedral on February 3. A delegation from the Patriarchate of Constantinople attended, including Metropolitan Emmanuel of Gaul, Metropolitan Amphilochios of Adrianople, Metropolitan Georgios (Kalischuk), head of the UOC of Canada, Archimandrite Alexios, abbot of Xenophontos Monastery on Mount Athos, Fr. Michael Anishchenko, the Phanar’s exarch in Kyiv, as well as two monks from the St. Panteleimon Skete of Koutloumousiou Monastery on Mount Athos. The Athonite monks in attendance did not represent the Holy Mountain – the Holy Community of Mount Athos had decided at an extraordinary session to reject Patriarch Bartholomew’s request to send an official delegation to Kyiv – but were instead part of the Constantinople delegation.
Also in attendance were UGCC head Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Roman Catholic Bishops’ Conference Bronislaw Bernacki, Roman Catholic Metropolitan of Lviv Mieczysław Mokrzycki, and representatives of Protestant churches.
Phanar representatives failed to secure the attendance of a single hierarch from any of the other Local Churches.
Representatives of Ukraine’s political establishment also attended the ceremony, including President Petro Poroshenko and his wife, Batkivshchyna leader Yulia Tymoshenko, Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak, and others.
As previously reported by the UOJ, Archimandrite Ephraim, abbot of Vatopedi Monastery, was hospitalized with heart problems on February 1 after arriving in Kyiv as part of the Patriarchate of Constantinople delegation. He left Ukraine on February 3. Epifaniy Dumenko nevertheless managed to take several photographs with the Athonite elder.
