"Athos Counter-Revolution": Monks did not support the Ukrainian policy of the Constantinople Patriarchate

Protos (or Kinot) of Holy Mount Athos decided not to send a delegation to the "enthronement" of the head of the Ukrainian schismatics, false Metropolitan Epiphanius

Even six months ago, it was impossible to imagine that the protos (supreme authority) of Holy Mount Athos would meet to discuss whether to send a delegation to Kiev for the “enthronement" of the false Metropolitan Epiphanius, the newly elected head of the united HCU pseudo-Orthodox nationalist sect. A few months ago, the notorious Epiphanius (in reality, Sergey Dumenko) was the right hand of a false patriarch Filaret (Mikhail Denisenko) anathematized in the Russian Orthodox Church, and none of the Orthodox Local Churches recognized him as a cleric.

Nevertheless, on January 28, 2019, a similar discussion on the holy mountain became a reality. At the meeting of the Holy Kinot the question was raised whether to go to Kiev to the disguised impostors, with whom, according to canonical rules, one puts the Orthodox cleric outside of Orthodoxy. Actually, the question was even posed in the wrong way, but “whether to respect your own first hierarch?”, Patriarch Bartholomew, who with his lawless “tomos about Ukrainian autocephaly” and gave birth to the sect of the Most Holy Church of Ukraine “HCU”.

The monasteries of Mount Athos are well known: the only canonical Church on the territory of the post-Soviet republic, called "Ukraine", is the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (self-governing, but an integral part of the Russian Church). Whose Primate, the Most Blessed Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine Onufry, a longtime and most esteemed admirer of the Athonite shrines, previously visited Athos monasteries annually and modestly served as a simple hieromonk to them.

Perhaps that is why for Dumenko and Denisenko it was so important to get "Athos legitimation". But, despite the divisive aspirations and their algorithm, according to which everything can be solved through the commanders, Athos refused to send representatives to the forthcoming Kiev February rite called "enthronement of Epiphanius." In fact, the monks of the holy mountain carried out the real “Athos counterrevolution”.

In short, the current position of Mount Athos is a kind of ray of Orthodox light in the Patriarchate of Constantinople. However, remembering the Patriarchs of Constantinople as their first hierarchs, the monks of the holy mountain always maintained a special conservative canonical position. On Mount Athos, they always baptized those who converted to Orthodoxy from Roman Catholics and Protestants, and to this day remain committed to the “old style” (the Julian church calendar). Many other church rules were preserved here, as well as liturgical orders. It remains to hope that this sequence of monks from Holy Mount Athos will be an example for other Orthodox Local Churches. And not only in the "Ukrainian issue".