On January 23, 2022, Honorary Patriarch Filaret in St Volodymyr’s Cathedral ordained Archimandrite Aviv (Panku) as Bishop of Riscani, Vicar of the Eastern Moldavian Diocese – that’s despite an effective ban imposed by the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
The “UOC-KP” press service has reported on the “completed ordination.”
It should be recalled that in October 2021, the head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kyiv and All Ukraine signed a decree providing for disciplinary measures against OCU clergy for violations of the canonical order and the Church Statute.
The document states that the decision of the Holy Synod (Journal No. 30, meeting of June 25, 2019), approved by the Council of Bishops of the OCU on December 14, 2019, states that, according to canonical rules, the sole head of the Kyiv Diocese is the head of the OCU, Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Ukraine, while “Honorary Patriarch Filaret remains part of the OCU episcopate, but has lost the canonical rights and responsibilities associated with managing a diocese.”
Therefore, Honorary Patriarch Filaret, “as a retired bishop, is forbidden to perform acts that are the exclusive prerogative of the ruling bishop, including blessing monastic vows and ordaining to any sacred rank…” the Decree says.
Based on the above, the OCU warned the honorary patriarch that any service of bishop ordination, performed despite prohibition, shall be deemed anti-canonical and invalid today, and neither shall it be recognized in the future.
Thus, the “hierarchical ordination” of Archimandrite Aviv (Panku) as “Bishop of Riscani, Vicar of the Eastern Moldavian Diocese,” carried out by Honorary Patriarch Filaret, shall be null and void, according to the OCU decree.
Earlier, Filaret asked the infamous administrative court of Kyiv to restore the UOC-KP, which had been liquidated in December 2018 at the Unification Council.
Also recently, the “bishop of the UOC-KP” asked ROC Metropolitan Hilarion for “concessions to each other” and “forgiveness.”
It should be recalled that in 2019, a few months after the granting of the tomos to the OCU, Patriarch Filaret claimed that this was a “wrong” kind of tomos, not like the one handed to other Churches, although this is not the case. Further, the honorary patriarch, ignoring the recognition of other Churches and the autocephaly of the OCU, stated that he was restoring the “Kyiv Patriarchate,” which he had liquidated and which had not been recognized by anyone. He began to ordain “bishops,” managing only a few parishes and St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral.
As we can see, Patriarch Filaret does not care about the recognition of other churches and the canonical resolution of the Ukrainian issue by the intervention of the Mother Church – the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which declared the anathema on Filaret invalid and founded Christianity in Russia, the Kyiv Metropolis.
