The head of the European deanery of the UOC-KP Volodymyr Chaika informed that Filaret`s structure abroad, in particular a parish in the German city of Cologne, had had to return to the Patriarchate of Kyiv, because nobody replied their request about joining at the Phanar. It`s reported on the deanery`s page in facebook.

The German deanery was the oldest Filaret`s structure in Europe, submitting to the “patriarch” directly. Wishing to keep the ties with Ukraine, after giving the Tomos to the OCU, the parish in the city of Cologne through its clergymen appealed to Epiphany Dumenko, but didn`t receive any answer.

“Epiphany’s unofficial recommendation during a personal meeting in Kyiv was to try to appeal to the Patriarchate of Constantinople in order to find an official solution in the form of a compromise, so that he could belong to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and somehow get a legitimate spiritual connection and custody from Kiev. The parish of the city of Cologne did not receive any response to such a request from the Phanar. Likewise, attempts to contact Archbishop Daniel Zelinsky (USA), responsible for Germany, to find a canonical solution to the problem, did not give results, or rather, remained without a chance for dialogue”, says the European Deanery of the UOC-KP.

However much they wanted to belong to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the implementation itself would be very difficult or impossible due to the church’s rule on the transfer of parishes and clergy between dioceses and jurisdictions. “The parishes in the city of Cologne, the city of Madrid and the priest of the Italian town of Larino seemed to have a choice, but they didn`t have another legitimate way to keep a spiritual connection with the Church but to stay with the Patriarch Filaret, because he was the only one who was and still remains the managing bishop for Europe, and besides, he was restored to his canonical rights before the granting of the Tomos by the decision of the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople on 10/11/2018”, as it is explained in the structure of the UOC-KP.