Zoria explains why Filaret’s title includes references to UOC Lavras

Spokesman of the Kiev Patriarchate Eustratiy Zoria

The head of the UOC KP Filaret is indeed the “holy archimandrite” of the Kiev-Pechersk and Pochaev Lavras, spokesman for the Kiev Patriarchate Eustratiy Zoria told on Facebook.

He stated that the Lavras are “Stavropegia of the Kiev Throne”, according to the resolutions of the 1991 UOC Council and the 1993 UOC KP “council”. “The definition of this fact in the full title of Primate is just a statement of what has been until now,” wrote Zoria.

The spokesman of the UOC KP is sure that such statements "did not lead to any unrest or problems in the past, nor will they not lead to any in the future."

In objective reality, both the Kiev-Pechersk (since 1991) and the Pochaev Lavra (since 1997) have the status of Stavropegia and are canonically directly subordinated to the jurisdiction of His Beatitide Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. At the moment, this is Metropolitan Onufriy, while Filaret's title is designed in virtual reality.

Zoria was reminded of this in comments to Sergey Chaplin's post on Facebook by one of the readers Roman Voitkov: in both Lavras during the divine service not Filaret but His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy is commemorated. And it is Onufriy whom these two monasteries consider to be their Primate. Voitkov stressed that Filaret is not the holy archimandrite of the Kiev-Pechersk and Pochaev Lavras. “Both Kiev and Pochaev DO NOT recognize him as their holy archimandrite, DO NOT commemorate at the service. Why do you impose yourself and engage in self-deception,” wrote the opponent of the UOC KP spokesman. He suggested that the Kiev Patriarchate "is primarily interested in the territory," but not real people.

The Kiev Patriarchate emerged in 1992. The first decree, to which Zoria refers, was adopted in November 1991 by the UOC Council. The text quoted by the spokesman of the UOC KP concerns the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. In the resolution, His Beatitude Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine was named the Holy Archimandrite of Kiev-Pechersk and Pochaev Monastery.

Recall that on 20 October, 2018, the “Holy Synod” of the UOC KP introduced full and abbreviated title forms for the “head” of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate. The members of the “synod” approved the following full title: “The Most Holy and Blessed (name), Archbishop and Metropolitan of Kiev - Mother of the Rus Cities, Galicia, Patriarch of All Rus-Ukraine, Holy Archimandrite of the Holy Assumption Kiev-Pechersk and Pochaev Lavras.”

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