Kiev, June 24, 2022
Photo: spzh.news
Deputies of the City Council in Cherkasy voted to ban the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in that city, reports Interfax Religion, citing the TV channel I-UA.TV.
This is despite the fact that the vote in favor of the petition to ban the UOC was not unanimous: 30 deputies supported the ban, while several people said that local authorities do not have the authority to prohibit the activities of the Church.
In the continued confusion of Church and State amidst the strife of war, a proposal was made at the meeting in Cherkassy to tell the parishioners of the UOC not to donate funds to the canonical Church. "We must clearly state our position. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church must make a decision: it either supports Russia or the Ukrainian people,” said Deputy Pavel Karas.
As reported earlier, a tendency has taken hold in Ukraine to officially ban the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church due to its affiliation with the Moscow Patriarchate, even though it has been completely self-governing since 1990. Moreover, not long after the Russian special operation began in Ukraine, a UOC Council resolved to remove all connection to the MP from the UOC charter, leaving the commemoration of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia up to each diocese. His Beatitude Metropolitan Onunphry, Primate of the UOC, has not been commemorating the Russian Patriarch as his ruling Primate in the Liturgy since the Council meeting. But with such tendencies as the recent Cherkasy ban gaining momentum, it is entirely uncertain that further moves towards independence by the UOC from the MP will have any real effect on the persecution being waged against it by Ukrainian nationalists.
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