The head of the UOC-KP Filaret Denisenko commented on the online conference of the vicariate in the USA, Canada, Australia and Japan. The secretary of the vicariate, Viktor Polyarny, who was dismissed by Filaret, convened it. An appeal from the “patriarch” in which he called the event a fake, was posted on Facebook.
As reported, on February 15, 2021 the participants of this event announced that they were transferring to the OCU.
“I have heard “the official” about the online conference of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the United States, convened by Viktor Polyarny. This conference deceives the clergy and the flock of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the USA.
On September 21, 2019 Viktor Polyarny and the head of the administration of Bloomingdale left the vicariate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate in the USA. They have no canonical right to organize such a conference.
In addition, the assertion that “all communities within the vicariate remain under the omophorion of His Beatitude Epiphany, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine” is another one deception. Because the vicariate in the United States has never been subordinate to him. The Tomos of Patriarch Bartholomew on the autocephaly of the Church of January 6, 2019, directly prohibits having or establishing parishes outside Ukraine. This means that the Ukrainian parishes in the United States and Canada were not and are not subordinate to Metropolitan Epiphany.
“The vicariate of the UOC in the USA was founded by the Patriarch of Kyiv and All Rus-Ukraine Filaret, and he led and is leading this vicariate. The Patriarch appointed Bohdan Zgoba, rector of the Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Philadelphia. Viktor Polyarny and the head of the council John Yaresko have nothing to do with the vicariate. There is no other Ukrainian Orthodox Vicariate in the United States,” Filaret says.