At a press conference held on January 20 in Kyiv, Filaret told what he expected from the Moscow Patriarch, from the UOC-MP, and outlined the apocalyptic fate of the OCU.
At a press conference held on January 20 in Kyiv, Filaret told what he expected from the Moscow Patriarch, from the UOC-MP, and outlined the apocalyptic fate of the OCU.
"If the Moscow Patriarch recognizes the UOC-MP as an autocephalous Church, then the next step is the merger of the Kyiv and Moscow Patriarchates into the one Ukrainian Orthodox Church, but in the status of the Kyiv Patriarchate. Then this Patriarchy will overcome anything. As a result of this merger, the parishes, dioceses, and episcopate of the OCU will begin to join the Kyiv Patriarchate. The OCU will split up and there will be one Orthodox Church in Ukraine."
Filaret sees the growth of the Kyiv Patriarchate as his task, so that it "becomes as large as it was before the formation of the OCU".
"My goal is to increase the episcopate, parishes, dioceses, and clergy of the Kyiv Patriarchate in Ukraine, and to join parishes in Europe, the United States, and Canada to the Kyiv Patriarchate," Filaret said.