UOC KP leader: OCU was and remains unrecognized whatsoever
The head of the UOC KP believes that despite granting of the Tomos, no recognition of the OCU has occurred.
“Patriarch of Kiev and All Rus-Ukraine” Filaret believes that it’s impossible to speak about recognition of the OCU by the Local Orthodox Churches. He stated this in an interview with the Ukrainian Radio.
For example, to the journalist's remark that the Tomos gave recognition to the “Ukrainian church”, Filaret responded that “this is an imaginary recognition”, since in fact, “there is no recognition with the Tomos arrival”.
Moreover, he asserts that "none of the 13 Autocephalous Churches recognizes the OCU", which means, in his opinion, that "one shouldn’t boast that we actually have the Tomos on autocephaly".
At the same time, according to him, “the Ukrainian people need an independent church.” That is why the head of the UOC KP convenes the “Local Council”: “in order to establish the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate in the future, which will be independent both from Moscow and Constantinople”.
Filaret Denisenko says that “at first it (independent church – Ed.) will be small, but this Kiev Patriarchate will grow again to become a big one”. However, the OCU, in his words, "was an unrecognized church and remains so to the present day".
Earlier, the UOJ wrote that Epiphany Dumenko believes that Churches that do not recognize the OCU do not recognize their own autocephaly.
