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UOC-MP Orthodox of Donetsk Protest Planned Visit by UOC-KP Patriarch

27.05.2005, [03:32] // Protest //

Donetsk – The visit to Donetsk of Patriarch Filaret (Denysenko), head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate (UOC-KP), planned for late May “is political in character and aimed strictly at provoking and deepening interdenominational animosity.” So reads an open letter to the leaders of eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region released by the clergy and faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church–Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP). The authors of the letter ask state representatives not to hold official meetings with the patriarch. pravoslavye.org.ua posted the news on 23 May 2005.

The letter says, among other things: “M. Denysenko, excommunicated from the Orthodox Church in 1994, has created an organization, called ‘the Ukrainian Orthodox Church–Kyivan Patriarchate,’ with support of the previous government. The ‘Kyivan Patriarchate’ groups, not numerous in the region, are registered as religious communities and use the symbols and authority of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church [-Moscow Patriarchate]. [They] create organizations with parallel names, thus bringing, in our opinion, disbalance and strain into the life of society.

“We are certain,” continues the letter, “that the appearance of ‘Filaret’ or Mykhailo Denysenko, in our region is political in character and aimed strictly at provoking and deepening interdenominational animosity in our society… We turn to you with the hope that the government’s authorities will demonstrate consideration in communicating with a person excommunicated from the church and not recognized by a single Orthodox church in the world.

“We think that any forms of communication between the representatives of the authorities and a person as odious as this one will lead to destabilization of the religious and political situation in the region.

“In the name of the clergy and faithful of the eparchy of Donetsk and Horlivka, we ask the representatives of the government, for the sake of peace and tranquility in the region, to refrain from official meetings with the anathematized false patriarch, ‘Filaret,’ during his visit to Donbas,” reads the letter.

Source:

• http://pravoslavye.org.ua/index.php?r_type=news&action=fullinfo&id=7295