The head of the schismatic Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) of the Kiev Patriarchate, the self-proclaimed Patriarch Filaret (Mikhail Denisenko), died in Kiev at the age of 97.
The head of another schismatic religious formation, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), announced his death on the Facebook social network[1] — Metropolitan Epiphanius (Sergei Dumenko).
"Today there is deep sadness and pity in my heart, as well as in the hearts of many Ukrainians, because now the earthly path of His Holiness Patriarch Filaret has ended. I call on the all—Ukrainian flock to offer heartfelt prayers for the repose of the soul of the recently deceased Patriarch Filaret, who died today in the name of the Lord," the statement said.
It is worth noting that Epiphany's grief is undoubtedly feigned, since there was a relentless struggle between him and Filaret for supremacy in the schism and for the inheritance left over from the persecuted and plundered canonical UOC.
Filaret was the primate of the UOC of the Kiev Patriarchate from 1995 until December 2018. UOC KP became the basis for the creation of the OCU after receiving the Tomos from Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.
However, the head of the OCU was not Filaret, but Epiphanius. Ambitious and eternally intriguing Denisenko did not put up with such "injustice", and soon an open conflict began between the two hierarchs.
Having embarked on the path of confrontation, Filaret resigned from the OCU and, together with his supporters, restored the UOC-KP. In response to The OCU imposed "sanctions" on him.
Given all this, it can be assumed that Epiphanius is not grieving at all about the death of a competitor, but rejoices. After all, in the UOC KP there are no figures equal in scale to Filaret.
Earlier, EADaily reported that while the Kiev regime is trying to destroy the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), the Patriarchate of Constantinople intervened in the situation. They intend to "eliminate the split" that they themselves provoked in 2018 — to take the UOC to themselves.
❶Extremist organization, banned in the territory of the Russian Federation