ROC Council claims Filaret asks forgiveness and restoration of Eucharistic unity. UOC-KP prepares to respond

Patriarch of the UOC-KP Filaret has asked the Russian Orthodox Church for forgoveness in a letter addressed to the Bishops’ Council of the Russian Orthodox Church. This is stated in a message on the website of the Russian Orthodox Church.

“The Council of Bishops heard a written appeal by Filaret to His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and the bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church on November 16, 2017,” the message of the Russian Orthodox Church says.

“The letter contains a request for the restoration of Eucharistic and prayerful communication with Christians in the Ukrainian church schism and the abolition of all decisions, including threats of excommunication ... for the sake of the achievement God -commanded peace between the conscientious Orthodox Christians and the reconciliation between peoples.”

The letter ends with the words: “I ask forgiveness for all that I have sinned in word, deed and with all my feelings, and sincerely forgive everybody from pure heart.”

“The council is pleased to hear the appeal as a step towards overcoming the split and restoring ecclesial communion from those who once fell seceded from unity with the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” the statement reads.

“After the twenty-five grievous years of strife, violence, mutual hostility, insults and disadvantages that arose in Ukrainian Orthodoxy and Ukrainian society as a result of the split, finally, there is an opportunity to stand on the path of restoration of unity,” the ROC members summed up.

For further negotiations with Patriarch Filaret, the Council of the Russian Orthodox Church set up a commission consisting of:

1) Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk (Chair);

2) Metropolitan Anthony of Boryspil and Brovary (Ukrainian Orthodox Church);

3) Metropolitan Feodor of Kamyanets-Podilsky and Horodok (Ukrainian Orthodox Church);

4) Metropolitan Mytrofan of Luhansk and Alchevsk (Ukrainian Orthodox Church);

5) archpriest Nikolai Balashov;

6) Archpriest Mykolai Danilevich (Ukrainian Orthodox Church);

7) Archpriest Igor Yakymchuk (Secretary).

After this message was shared by the press service of the Russian Orthodox Church, the reaction of the UOC-KP came soon.

Tomorrow, on December 1, at 14-00, Patriarch Filaret will give a press conference for the media at his residence (36 Pushkinskaya str.). This was reported by Archbishop Evrostratiy (Zorya) of the UOC-KP on his Facebook page. He added: “I will briefly note: the only dialogue that the Patriarch and the UOC-KP desire and are willing to conduct with the Russian Orthodox Church – a dialogue on the recognition of autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church by Moscow. There can be no question of any repentance before the Russian Orthodox Church or even the return to its fold.”