By Kostas Onisenko
“Honorary Patriarch of Ukraine” Filaret, who agreed to the accession of the so-called “Kiev Patriarchate” to the unified Orthodox Church of Ukraine and then stated that he revoked this decision, often cites as a reason for his change that he allegedly expected a different content of the Tomos for the Ukrainian Church. This argument cannot be valid for several reasons. However, and as Filaret continues to use this argument, various hierarchs who have witnessed closely the developments in Kiev in December 2018 occasionally ask a relevant question.
In a recent interview with the Ukrainian website velychlviv.com, Metropolitan Dimitri (Rudyuk) of Lviv and Sokal said that Filaret knew in detail about the contents of the Tomos of Autocephaly at least three days before the unification of the Ukrainian Church.
“Today it is heard more and more often that’s supposedly we did not know the content of this Tomos until the last moment. It’s a lie! Three days before the Synod for the Unification, Patriarch Filaret informed the archpriests of the “Kiev Patriarchate” about which points would be mentioned in the Tomos and everyone knew about everything very well. That is why everything mentioned in the Tomos is fully in line with the situation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine as an autocephalous church,” the Metropolitan said in the interview.
Metropolitan Dimitri also referred to the other argument used by Filaret and agents of the Russian Church in order to harm the newly formed Church of Ukraine, namely that it is a Diocese and not a Patriarchate. The Metropolitan states that the Church of Ukraine will become a Patriarchate when “the process of unification of all Ukrainian Orthodoxy is completed.”