VINNYTSIA CLERGY REFUSE TO FOLLOW THEIR BISHOP INTO LOCAL CHURCH
Interfax-Religiia, 16 November 2018
The clergy of Vinnytsia do not support their ruling bishop, Metropolitan Simeon, who declared his intention to participate in the unification council for creation of a Ukrainian church independent of Moscow.
"We support the current status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as self-administering with rights of independence and self-determination, we condemn the crude anticanonical interference of the patriarchate of Constantinople into the life of our church, and we express total support for the primate of our church, His Beatitude Onufrey, Metropolitan of Kiev and all-Ukraine," the decision of an extraordinary assembly of clergy of Vinnytsia says.
As reported on Friday by the Department of Information and Enlightenment of the UPTs, the decision was signed by 42 participants in an assembly, out of 44 present, that is, an overwhelming majority of clergy of the city. Participants in the assembly included, among others, the secretary of the diocese, the abbot of the Lemeshev male monastery and the abbess of the Brailov and Barskoe female cloister.
The clergy invited the ruling bishop, Metropolitan of Vinnytsia and Barskoe Simeon, to participate in the assembly, but he refused to arrive.
As was reported, the metropolitan of Vinnytsia was the only one of the bishops of the UPTs who did not want to place his signature under the concluding document of its Bishops' Council of 13 November. In particular, he did not agree with such decisions as the severance of eucharistic communion with Constantinople and the call for the repentance of the Ukrainian schismatics as an indispensible condition for overcoming the church schism. On the same day, along with two other hierarchs of the UPTs, Metropolitan Simeon arrived for a closed meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
Meanwhile, the clergy of the Vinnytsia diocese declared their full support of the decisions of the UPTs council of 13 November, about which they wrote in an appeal to their ruling bishop. Clerics of Vinnytsia and representatives of the diocesan monasteries also sent to Metropolitan Simeon a request to convene a meeting on 19 November in order "to support by a diocesan vote these decisions of the Bishops' Council and to demonstrate church-wide unity in the face of future trials." (tr. by PDS, posted 16 November 2018)
UPTs METROPOLITAN SIMEON INCLINED TO PARTICIPATE IN UNIFICATION COUNCIL—NEWS MEDIA
Interfax-Religiia, 15 November 2018
Metropolitan of Vinnytsia and Barskoe Simeon, the only participant of the UPTs Bishops' Council who did not place his signature under its final document, is preparing to participate in the creation of a "United Local Church."
"If we appealed to the ecumenical patriarch, that means the authority regarding conducting a (unification—IF) council belongs to him. They should give us a road map which will clearly show that what we must do so that this process proceeds within the canonical field. And further, they say, choose yourself what will be your work and who will be responsible for what," the metropolitan said on Thursday in an interview with the publication Glavkom.
In his opinion, there will be some provisional resolutions in order to avoid disputes "as there now are between the two primates (leaders of schisms Filaret and Makary—IF) about what kind of charter the church will live by, who will head it, and the like."
"I think that an exarch who will arrive from the ecumenical patriarchate for the council should introduce clarity about how this process will proceed," Metropolitan Simeon added.
As reported, at a UPTs Bishops' Council held on Tuesday, the Vinnytsia metropolitan did not agree with such decisions as a severance of eucharistic communion with Constantinople and a call for repentance of Ukrainian schismatics as the indispensible condition for overcoming the church schism. On the same day, he arrived along with two other UPTs hierarchs for a closed meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
Later Metropolitan Simeon reported to journalists that he may become the head of the new Ukrainian church being created by Constantinople, like any other hierarch who participates in the unification council.
In 2014, after the death of Metropolitan of Kiev Vladimir, the Vinnytsia metropolitan was one of the aspirants for the position of head of the UPTs, although he received only nine votes in the first round of the election and one in the second. (tr. by PDS, posted 16 November 2018)
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