Synod of UOC-Kyivan Patriarchate Positively Evaluates Meeting with Ukrainian President

On May 13, in Kyiv, under the headship of Patriarch Filaret, a session of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate (UOC-KP) was held. The synod dismissed Metropolitan Adrian (Staryna) from the position of the head of Kryvyi Rih Eparchy. According to the press service of the UOC-KP, the dismissal is explained by the fact that Metropolitan Adrian earlier addressed the leadership of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) with a request to admit him into the jurisdiction of that denomination. However, according to the report, the leadership of the UAOC refused to do so.

As Metropolitan Adrian is also the head of the Bohorodsk Eparchy (Moscow Region, Russia), he remains the head of that eparchy with the title of Metropolitan of Bohorodsk.

The synod excluded Metropolitan Adrian from the number of its permanent members and replaced him by Archbishop Serhii (Horobtsov) of Donetsk and Mariupol.  

The synod positively evaluated the President Viktor Yanukovych's meeting with Patriarch Filaret and the heads of other churches and religious organizations of Ukraine, and stressed the importance of the statements of the president as to strict observance by the state of the principle of equal treatment of all denominations.