BRAMA, Jun 19, 2003, 9:00 am ET
Press Release
V.I.P'S to Attend Day of Prayer in North Port
June 18, 2003 — The highest ranking and the most distinguished prelate to attend the "Day of Prayer for Christian Unity" at the North Port's Presentation of theMost Holy Mother of God Ukrainian Catholic Church ("the church with the golden dome") Thursday, June 26, 2003 will be Filarert, Patriarch of Kyiv and All Rus-Ukraine, head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyivan Patriarchate. His church has:
2,781 communities
22 monasteries
113 monks and nuns
2182 priests
1825 churches
217 churches are being built
(Source: Religious Information Service of Ukraine).
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyivan Patriarchate was created by Filaret, who was then Metropolitan of Kyiv, subordinate to the Russian Orthodox Church, which was the only church officially recognized by the Soviet Russian regime.
Should the three, now independent of each other, Ukrainian Orthodox churches unite, which is only a matter of tome according to most observes, Patriarch Filaret or his successor will head the largest Orthodox church in the world, "and Kyiv will resume its historical leadership among eastern Slavs as the direct descendant of Kyiv Rus and the Kyiv Metropolitanate (the city of Moscow was founded 600 years after Kyiv)",( Religious Information Service of Ukraine; Taras Kuzio, The Struggle to Establish the World's Largest Orthodox Church, September 5, 2000).
The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) refers to Filaret as "Former Metropolitan Filaret of Kyiv", and uses every mean at its disposal to discredit him as well as to sabotage all attempts at the unification of the churches in Ukraine. It should be remembered that in the former Soviet Union two-thirds of all ROC parishes were in Ukraine, and today close to one half of all ROC parishes are in Ukraine. The forceful abolition of the Kyi Metropolitanate by the Russian government, transferring it to Moscow, and subsequently elevating it contrary to the canon laws to the Patriarchy to establish it as the "Third Rome" was never accepted by other Orthodox churches, including the "First Among Equals" Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. Nevertheless, Russian Patriarch Alexei II continues to proclaim that the entire territory of the former USSR is his canonical domain.
Patriarch Filaret (given name Mykhailo Denysenko) was born into a working class family in 1926. He graduated from Oesa Seminary and the Moscow Spiritual Academy. He was a close associate of Patriarch Alexei I of Moscow, and he taught in seminaries and academies. In 1962 he received Episcopal ordination. In 1966 he was named archbishop and later metropolitan of Kyiv and Halych, the first ethnic Ukrainian in that post for 150 years. He was active in international religious organizations, traveled to more than 80 countries and has received many Church awards and honors. In 1990 after the death of Patriarch Pimen of Moscow, Filaret became the administrator of the Moscow Patriarchate.
After the dissolution of the USSR and having failed in an attempt to obtain recognition of the autonomy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from ROC Filaret with three other bishops united with the Ukrainian Autocephalous (Independent) Orthodox Church and in June 1992 created a new Church, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyivan Patriarchate, which he now heads. The Hierarchical Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1997 excommunicated him from the Church and put him under anathema. Filaret has not acknowledged the validity of this act, saying that he has simply left one national Church for another.
(NOTE: Most of the information for this News Item was obtained from materials published by the Religious Information Service of Ukraine).
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