The National Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC-KP) has made changes to the Statute of the Church with the introduction of a new position – the deputy patriarch. The deputy patriarch will automatically become the locum tenens of the patriarchal throne in the event of the death of the Primate or if the head of the church can not perform his duties.
The UOC-KP explained that the changes are not connected to the health of the current Patriarch Filaret (Denysenko), who recently turned 84.
“One of the reasons for this decision was the events in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, when during the illness of its Primate, the hierarchs made a decision contrary to his will. For example, they convened a meeting of the Synod, which excluded the metropolitan’s closest aide - Archbishop Oleksandr,” explained the secretary of the Holy Synod of the UOC-KP Archbishop Yevstratiy (Zoria). According to him, the appointment of the deputy patriarch would “eliminate the possibility of external influence on the church when changing the main hierarch.”
According to the previous Statute of the UOC-KP, in case the patriarch fails to fulfill his duties or in the event of his death, the Holy Synod would first chose a locum tenens, after which the local council would have three to six months to choose the head of the church. Now the provision on the time restriction for electing the new patriarch will be removed from the statute
“The council will have no time restriction, because by that time the Orthodox Church can be close to unity. Accordingly, we may have to choose the head of a unified national Orthodox church," said Archbishop Yevstratiy.
It should be noted that previously the elected locum tenens of the head of the UOC-KP became Primate. For example, after the death of the first head of the church Patriarch Mstyslav (Skrypnyk) in 1993, the locum tenens was Metropolitan Volodymyr (Romaniuk), who was then elected patriarch, and after his death in 1995 the locum tenens and subsequently the Primate became Patriarch Filaret.
According to Kommersant, today Archbishop of Pereyaslav-Khmelnytsky and Boryspil Epiphany (Dumenko), who became a bishop in 2009, will become the deputy patriarch. Meanwhile, Archbishop Epiphany will not qualify for the post of patriarch in the next six years, as in the Statute of the Church remains a provision, whereby the head of the UOC-KP has to be at least forty years old (Archbishop Epiphany was born in 1979).