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He stressed he was not ready to sacrifice personal ambitions in the issue of electing the head of the new church.
Head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP) Filaret has named criteria that will be taken into account when electing the head of an independent Orthodox Church that will be created in Ukraine.
Speaking on the Ukrainian radio, he said that according to the terms of the Patriarch of Constantinople, the Ukrainian church should be headed by an archbishop who is a metropolitan rather than a patriarch, the Novoe Vremya weekly reported.
In this regard, the head of the UOC-KP received the expanded (the archbishop and metropolitan of Kyiv and all Rus of Ukraine) and reduced titles (the patriarch of Kyiv and all Rus of Ukraine, for internal use).
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"It is necessary to have a degree in theological education, know the canon law, have experience in managing a diocese and a church. And if there is no experience, things won't go well," Filaret said.
He stressed he was not ready to sacrifice personal ambitions in the issue of electing the head of the new church.
"No! But not because I consider myself as such. But because Moscow will do everything to destroy the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. And therefore, to preserve the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and bring it to fruition, I have to work to the end," Filaret said.
As UNIAN reported earlier, on October 11, following a meeting of the Synod, a decision was announced, stating that the Ecumenical Patriarchate proceeds to granting autocephaly to the Church of Ukraine.
In addition, the legal binding of the Synod's letter of 1686 was abolished, thus taking the Kyiv Metropolis from under Moscow's canonical jurisdiction. Also, head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP) Filaret and head of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) Makariy were reinstated in their canonical status.
On October 12, the UOC-KP urged the hierarchs of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) to prepare for a special unification council.