Patriarch Filaret: Kharkiv Council of 1992 Organized by Security Services

The head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate, Patriarch Filaret, is convinced that the Kharkiv Council, which took place nearly 20 years ago, was held by the Ukrainian bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on the initiative of the state security service, on which they totally depended then. Therefore, in his opinion, the council was convened illegitimately and its decisions were also illegitimate. This statement was made by Patriarch Filaret in an exclusive interview to RISU posted on December 23.

"The 'council' was actually convened by the security services. The Russian and Ukrainian security service, which was then under the influence of the Russian one. The Union collapsed a very short time before that and there were many protégés of Moscow in the security service," said the hierarch.

The Council of Kharkiv of May 27-28, 1992, which dismissed the hierarch from the position of the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church for "sins and schismatic activity," was convened by Metropolitan Nikodim (Rusnak) of Kharkiv. According to Patriarch Filaret, only the head of the church had the right to conduct a church gathering of that level.

“It means that there was a stronger force than the head of the church. It was the secret force of the security services of another state. One should say that all the bishops in the Soviet Union without any exception maintained contacts with the security service. Therefore, the service told them: You must go to Kharkiv to attend a council," noted Patriarch Filaret.