The head of the Kyiv Patriarchate Filaret Denisenko is going to register his structure under a new name – the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Ukrainian Patriarchate.
This was reported by the head of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Lyudmila Filipovych:
“We have a fragment of the Kyiv Patriarchate. Filaret (Denisenko) still hasn’t calmed down, he is actively appointing new bishops. According to the latest information, he is now going to register a new church organization – the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, but no longer the Kyiv Patriarchate – the Ukrainian Patriarchate.”
Filaret will hardly be able to return the old registration of the Kyiv Patriarchate, as this would mean disavowing the creation of the OCU. It is unlikely that the United States will allow the Ukrainian authorities to realize such a scenario and destroy the project created by them and the Phanar.
If Filipovych’s words are true, it means that the UOC-KP decided to try to take a different path, and not try to achieve what is essentially impossible. Even at the level of the ECHR, a decision in favor of the Kyiv Patriarchate is rather unlikely.
But the registration of a new structure has a better chance of success. In our opinion, the authorities simply will not have legal reasons to deny him such registration. Even if there are several dozen communities within Ukraine, however, this is a real organization with real supporters. (Of course, we take into account the option that the Ukrainian government can sabotage laws, the Constitution, etc. This will not surprise anyone either).
If such registration takes place, it will consolidate the split within the OCU already at the legal level. In addition, the official legal status will enable Filaret to more actively develop his structure within Ukraine. It can be assumed that part of the OCU communities or its clergy may even move into this structure. The reasons may be different – conflicts with the leadership of the “OCU”, the community’s dissatisfaction with its cleric, etc.
Another consequence of the legalization of the new “Ukrainian Patriarchate” will be the final defeat of the arguments of Patriarch Bartholomew and the decisions of the Synod of the Church of Constantinople in 2018.
