Friday 13 April 2012

Patriarch Filaret (KP) is coming to Toronto -- April 20-24.

Patriarch Filaret (KP) is coming to Toronto -- April 20-24 with a dozen other church leaders from Ukraine. The purpose of the visit is to attend the conference on Metropolitan Sheptytsky to be held on Monday, April 23, 2012 at the University of Toronto's Munk Centre. For more information on the conference, go here:
http://www.cjs.utoronto.ca/sheptytskyandthejews

Once news of this event was received by the Ukrainian Orthodox community of Toronto, plans were made to greet the Patriarch. Almost immediately, the joy of welcoming the religious leader of 15 million Orthodox Ukrainians turned to disappointment. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada (UOCC) received instructions from the Ecumenical Patriarch (EP) that Patriarch Filaret was not to be welcomed. In fact, he is forbidden to set foot on any UOCC property.

The conciliar (sobornopravny) character of the Eastern Eparchy of the UOCC, however, is not to be stymied. Alternate plans are being made to welcome Patriarch Filaret. He is scheduled to attend the Easter Luncheon at the Ukrainian National Federation -- Toronto Branch on Sunday, April 22, 2012. For more information on the luncheon, go here:
http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=a2dba94bd5cc82f2ef1b82361&id=e4e2361b56&e=f3eee90bb8

If there is no change of heart in Istanbul, and if the Metropolitan of the UOCC remains subservient to the wishes of the EP, the Ukrainian Catholic Church has offered to invite the Patriarch to partake in religious services Sunday morning. For the Ukrainian Orthodox of the Eastern Eparchy this is proof positive that in 1990 the UOCC gave up its autocephaly, autonomy, independence and sobornopravnist when Bishop Yurij (now the Metropolitan) signed the Articles of Agreement granting "canonicity" to the Canadian church. Shame that in a free country like Canada a foreign despot is denying Canadians a basic human right -- the freedom of association.

Meanwhile, the rebellion against the new autocratic and synodal rule of the UOCC centre in Winnipeg is taking shape in the Vancouver suburb of New Westminster. There a property dispute is taking on entirely new proportions as a UOCC parish being denied pastoral care has reached out for assistance from the Kyivan Patriarchate. For more information, go here:
http://www.newwestnewsleader.com/news/146740365.html

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