Patriarch Filaret Supports Unrecognized Montenegrin Orthodox Church

Patriarch Filaret of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate supported the autocephaly of the Montenegrin Church which seeks international recognition as does the Ukrainian one . The heads of the Ukrainian and Montenegrin Orthodox Churches stated as the result that they will cooperate with each other and will not pay attention to the negation of their autocephaly by the Moscow and Serbian Orthodox Churches, as the Montenegrin and Ukrainian Orthodox Churches have historic bases.

According to www.bbc.co.uk, this is the first visit of the Patriarch of the UOC-KP to Montenegro and its Orthodox Church. According to the press service of the UOC-KP, on October 24, the heads of the Ukrainian and Montenegrin Churches conducted a liturgy with the concelebration of the bishops and clergymen of the two Churches at the Square of King Nikola in the ancient capital of Montenegro, Cetinje.

The head of the Ukrainian church pointed to the "absurdity of the situation" when the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is the church with the third largest number of the faithful after the Moscow and Romanian Patriarchates, still cannot obtain autocephaly after twenty years of independence of Ukraine.

"The present the Ukrainian Orthodox Church numbers more believers (14.5 million) than the Albanian, Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Czech Orthodox Churches which together number 12 million believers. According to him, the Ukrainian and Montenegrin Orthodox Churches have "historic foundations" and the "believers of the two churches live according to the Orthodox canons, dogmas, and rules and want to be together with all the Orthodox Churches but this is opposed by some Orthodox Churches," meaning the Moscow and Serbian Churches.