On February 21, 2021, a general meeting of the vicariate of the UOC-KP in the USA and Canada was held under the leadership of the head of the Kyiv Patriarchate Filaret Denisenko. This was reported on the website of the UOC-KP.

The secretary of the vicariate in the USA and Canada Bohdan Zgoba, as well as seven other clerics of the UOC-KP in the USA, joined the meeting, which took place in the format of a video conference on the ZOOM platform. Four were unable to join “for good reasons,” the message says, “someone because of illness, and someone because of the threats of former leaders to set the heads of the administration against them.”

Also, through the secretary of the vicariate, four leaders of the administrations, the flock from different parts of the USA and Canada, conveyed their respect to Filaret by telephone. Representatives of believers took part in the meeting – Varvara Latios who represented the sisterhood, the director of the Sunday school Judy Ganei, from the youth – Julia Kitkaylo and Andrei Whitmer, the secretary of the meeting – Franco Borriello and the treasurer Ellen Ganavin.

Filaret emphasized that he invariably remains the ruling bishop for everyone in the UOC-KP in the USA and Canada: the OCU cannot create dioceses and parishes abroad. At the same time, Viktor Polyarny, who voluntarily left the Kyivan Patriarchate, “is obliged to return the antimensions that he received from the hands of the Patriarch as the ruling bishop”.

The statements that the vicariate came under the control of the OCU are a deception of the believers, as it is noted in the UOC-KP. And Epiphany himself has not issued a single document that would confirm the opposite, Filaret recalled.

He also awarded the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Philadelphia with the title of a cathedral, so that the Philadelphia parish became the central temple of the vicariate of the UOC-KP in the USA and Canada.

Addressing those present at the web conference, the vice-president of the parish of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, Susan Guz, noted the need to return to the bosom of the vicariate all those who doubt the choice of the right path, and to welcome new parishes.

Professor of the University of Pennsylvania Olexandr Kachur also joined the word: “We were not just forgotten, but given to the subordination of a foreign Church. Tomos did not become a joy for us.”