Filaret: I was anathematized, but Epiphany is not even a priest

Filaret believes that if his anathema was valid, then the entire episcopate of the UOC KP is false. Photo: UOC KP website

Filaret Denisenko does not agree with the fact that he is "the former metropolitan of Kiev" (Phanar calls him that way), but declares that all the years of the existence of the Kiev Patriarchate was the patriarch and is now. He stated this in an interview with the Ukrainian radio in the program Persona Grata.

Filaret said he did not recognize his anathema from the very beginning, and he assures the whole Ukrainian nation did not recognize it either. It was this confidence that helped him ordain a large number of bishops for the UOC KP. However, in his opinion, arguments about lifting anathema from him in 2018 undermine the belief that these ordinations were legal.

“It’s good if the Ecumenical Patriarch removed the anathema from me in 2018,” reflects Filaret.  Yet, until 2018 – was I anathematized or not? If I was, it means that all these hierarchs (OCU – Ed.) are invalid. Therefore, Epiphany not only cannot be a metropolitan – he is not even a priest. If the Ecumenical Patriarch removed the anathema from me in 2018, then the entire episcopate is invalid!”

Earlier, Filaret said that the real unification of all Ukrainian Orthodoxy in the OCU did not happen, since the two bishops of the UOC (Simeon and Alexander), who jumped on the OCU's bandwagon, had virtually no parishes.

Read also

Interview with His Eminence Metropolitan Nicholas, First Hierarch of ROCOR

The Southern Clergy Retreat and the Growth of Orthodoxy in the South

Christian Orthodox Coalition Calls for Action Amid Syrian Crisis

March 19, 2025 – The Christian Orthodox Coalition in the United States has issued a powerful statement condemning the ongoing persecution of Orthodox Christians in war-torn Syria.