The head of the OCU Epiphany Dumenko, said in an interview with the ВВС that the “honorary patriarch” Filaret actually does not have much influence on parishes abroad. At the moment, the vicariate of the UOC-KP in the United States is asking to be included in the OCU, although this is prohibited in Istanbul.

“If we take America, there is the vicariate, which existed as a part of the UOC-KP until December 15, and it is united in its aspiration – it has gathered and even re-registered the relevant documents for the OCU. Honorary Patriarch Filaret has repeatedly asked them to staay in the KP, but their position is clear, I communicated with them while my visit to the United States”, Dumenko said.

The issue has not yet been normalized with the Church of Constantinople, which, we recall, took away all the developments of the UOC-KP abroad, but in the OCU “they are now negotiating with the Ecumenical Patriarchate so that we can spiritually patronize those parishes that were part of the Kyiv Patriarchate abroad”.