Kiev, April 28, 2020
Met. Anthony of Boryspil. Photo: antoniy.com.ua
The canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, headed by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine, is currently facing two challenges, His Eminence Metropolitan Anthony of Boryspil, the Chancellor of the UOC, believes: media lies and discrimination, and arson.
His Eminence has also referred to the recent wave of arson attacks against monasteries and churches as a true “terror.”
Met. Anthony spoke with the Ukrainian TV channel 112 yesterday, April 27, about the challenges facing the Church today, while first reminding the faithful that we are to have faith and trust in God’s providence.
“God always turns to us with His immense love. He resurrected human nature, and therefore ... we believe that God’s providence turns even evil into good,” the Chancellor said.
The first challenge, of media discrimination, has been ongoing for 6 years already, Met. Anthony said. False information in the media (currently focused on the number of coronavirus infections in various Ukrainian monasteries) incites religious hostility, leading astray those who trust the media, and offends the religious sensibilities of believers, he explained.
Met. Anthony also noted that due to the disrespect being shown to the rights of the faithful of the UOC, the Church’s Legal Department has developed samples of documents with which parishioners can protect themselves and their rights.
He also raised the issue of the recent provocations and intimidation against the Church in the form of threats and arson.
The Church is in constant contact with the National Police, who have been investigating a number of recent fires at UOC monasteries and churches. People’s Deputy Vadim Novinsky, a parishioner and great benefactor to the UOC, has also appealed to law enforcement agencies and the President to identify and punish those responsible for the arson attacks.
“They tried to present the Church as an enemy of the state policy to prevent the coronavirus pandemic, a source of danger to the health of citizens,” Novinsky said. “All this gives grounds to suspect the existence of a single, carefully coordinated action aimed at undermining the authority and destroying canonical Orthodoxy in Ukraine and replacing it with pseudo-Church surrogates, that is; we are dealing with the continuation of the policy of the Petro Poroshenko regime.”
His Eminence earlier referred to the fires on his Facebook page, noting that it was only a happy accident that saved the lives of 80 monks at the Holy Dormition Monastery in Odessa. “I am not afraid to call what happened a terror,” he wrote.
In the first hours after the fire in Odessa, Ukrainian media was already spreading lies, claiming the monks set the fire themselves, and that barely any damage was done. However, the abbot, Archbishop Viktor, has reported that the monastery received threats before the fire.
In Met. Anthony’s view, such attacks are an attempt to break the spirit of the UOC and persuade it to abandon the canonical Church in favor of the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine.”
“Why is all this being done; why is the authority of Vladimir Zelensky and his party being ‘killed?’” Met. Anthony asked. “I don't know how to answer that question.”
His Eminence Metropolitan Clement of Nizhyn, the head of the Synodal Information-Education Department, has also noted that many dioceses and monasteries are forced to ask the authorities for increased security in the current situation. He has also refuted the media lies about the coronavirus at the Kiev Caves Lavra.
