Synod of the OCU expels Bishop Filaret (Panku)

This is stated in the decisions of the Synod.

According to its participants, Bishop Filaret refused to obey the OCU, switched to the UOC-KP and accepted the title of Archbishop from Patriarch Emeritus Filaret (Denysenko).

“The Right Reverend Bishop Filaret (Panku) and the religious structures headed by him have observed and are observing the Romanian-Moldovan liturgical tradition and as such have never represented the Ukrainian Diaspora, being part of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, and then – the Orthodox Church of Ukraine under the rules of oikonomia.

Given all this, it was decided to pass judgment on the further canonical status of His Eminence Bishop Filaret (Panku), the former Bishop of Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky, and the religious institutions that are subordinate to him to the jurisdiction of the Romanian Orthodox Church, of which His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel of Romania and His Eminence Metropolitan Peter of Bessarabia should be notified,” reads the decision of the OCU Synod.

The members of the Holy Synod of the OCU also reserved the right for Bishop Filaret (Panku) to appeal against this decision to the Primate of the OCU Epifaniy.

Filaret (Panku) joined the UOC of the Kyiv Patriarchate in 2005. The Synod appointed him Bishop of Falesti and East Moldavia.

On July 31, 2005, Patriarch Filaret, in the concelebration of the bishops of the Kyiv Patriarchate, ordained him a Bishop during the Divine Liturgy at St. Volodymyr's Cathedral in Kyiv.

In 2019, he entered the episcopate of the newly created OCU. However, the following year he moved to the newly created UOC-KP.