Cypriot hierarch: Epiphany Dumenko is a schismatic

Metropolitan Nikiforos of Kykkos. Photo: mospat.ru

On October 26, 2020, Metropolitan Nikiforos of Kykkos stated in an interview with the ANT1 programme that he considered the head of the OCU Epiphany Dumenko a schismatic. 

Metropolitan Nikiforos said that “we were speechless when His Beatitude remembered the name of Epiphany, a schismatic,” who “therefore is not recognized by the Churches for he was ordained by the excommunicated Filaret Denisenko”.

He also noted that “the Ecumenical Patriarch gave autocephaly to these schismatic groups, so he (Dumenko – Ed.) was not recognized by other Orthodox Churches, except for the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and a year later – by the Churches of Greece and Alexandria”.

Vladyka said that at previous sessions of the Synod, “we all agreed, unanimously, on this issue (the recognition of the OCU – Ed.) when suddenly Friday comes, October 23, and Archbishop Chrysostomos commemorates Epiphany’s name ... Do you understand that this is not our whim that we reacted this way? I repeat, Epiphany became the anticanonical primate of the Ukrainian Church as he belongs to the schismatic groups in Ukraine. There are certain rules."

As reported, Metropolitan Nikiforos of Kykkos and Tyria said that the Orthodox Church of Cyprus is on the verge of schism due to the decision of its Primate Archbishop Chrysostomos to commemorate Epiphany Dumenko.

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