Future of UOC-KP after Filaret's death: experts predict final integration with OCU

After the death of Filaret Denisenko, the question of the UOC-KP’s further existence moved to the plane of the final legal and organizational completion of its activities. Religious scholars and officials believe that the structure, which was based on the personal authority of its leader, will actually cease to exist, and the remaining communities will be integrated into the OCU.

In a commentary to Glavkom, professor and doctor of philosophy Oleksandr Sagan said that at the moment the UOC-KP as an influential institution no longer exists. According to the expert, during Filaret’s lifetime, only about a dozen and a half communities in Ukraine and the same number in the diaspora were under his direct control. Many of those who did not formally join the OCU simply did not organize their charters, but in fact they no longer constitute a separate church force.

The opinion of the expert community is complemented by the former head of the Ministry of Culture, who emphasized in a comment to the media that the stability of relations between the OCU and the UOC-KP was ensured exclusively by the personality of Mykhailo Denysenko (Filaret). “The authority of the patriarch guaranteed the absence of sharp shocks. Now the OCU will focus on resolving property disputes and attracting those communities that previously were oriented toward Filaret,” the anonymous source said.

According to experts, the process of liquidation of the Kyiv Patriarchate was launched by the state after the so-called Unification Council of 2019, as a result of which the UOC-KP was absorbed by the newly created OCU. Despite years of attempts by Filaret to challenge the deregistration in court, his claims were unsuccessful.

Earlier, after the death and burial of the head of the UOC-KP Filaret Denisenko, an internal conflict erupted over the procedure for electing a successor. In a statement, the secretary of the UOC-KP Synod, Andriy Marutsak , accused some hierarchs of gross violations of the church charter and an attempt to seize power behind the scenes.