The Council of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine decided to appeal to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and the heads of the local churches to bring the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill Gundyaev, to account for his spiritual crimes.
"The Council of Bishops asked the Primate to appeal to the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Princes of the local churches to bring Russian Patriarch Kirill to canonical responsibility and deprive him of the Patriarchal throne," the OCU said in a statement following the May 24 meeting of the Council.
As noted in the OCU, the clergy asks to deprive Kirill of the throne "for spreading heretical ethnophile doctrine based on the ideology of the 'Russian world,' giving 'blessing' to Russian troops for the war in Ukraine, which continues to cause destruction and numerous casualties, as well as provoking schism," in particular because of the creation of "dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church" on the canonical territory of the Alexandria Patriarchate.
The council also supported ending the commemoration of the head of the Moscow Patriarchate, Kirill Gundyaev, in the diploma "in connection with his approval of Russian aggression against Ukraine, as well as propaganda of the ideology of 'Russian peace,' which falls under the definition of false ethnophileism.
The OCU established its own monastery in Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Epiphanius will appeal to the government for the premises.