Kiev, September 7, 2022
spzh.news
The canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church has again appealed to President Vladimir Zelensky to protect the rights of faithful Orthodox Christians.
The Church has been harassed and persecuted by schismatics and secular authorities for many years now, which has only increased since the beginning of the war in February.
Thus, His Eminence Metropolitan Anthony of Boryspil, the Chancellor of the UOC, addressed the president again regarding some representatives of state and local governmental bodies who continue to violate the rights of the Church and its faithful.
The entire Synod of the UOC addressed the President on this urgent topic back in May as well.
The Metropolitan’s new statement was published by the Information-Education Department of the UOC.
Though the Church has been actively helping all those in need in these difficult times, the Church continues to face persecution, Met. Anthony again informs Pres. Zelensky.
For example, His Eminence notes that just in his diocese, in the Kiev Province, the city councils of five separate cities and villages “made illegal decisions banning the activities of parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in their respective territories.”
Moreover, 56 parishes in the area have been illegally re-registered to the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” Met. Anthony laments. “Moreover, the seizure of churches is often accompanied by the use of threats and violence against believers,” he notes.
And most recently, the city council of Brovary, Kiev Province, decided to take a complex of buildings in the village of Knyazhichi away from their legal owner, the Holy Transfiguration Monastery of the canonical Church, and lease them to the schismatic OCU. The buildings were even rebuilt by the local monks and faithful at their own expense, Met. Anthony notes.
The same council also decided to terminate the right of permanent use of a plot of land by the Holy Transfiguration Church of the Boryspil Diocese of the canonical Church. Such decisions violate both the constitution of Ukraine and the unity of the people, and incite religious hatred, Met. Anthony writes.
Ukrainian law maintains the separation of church and state, and local secular councils have no authority to resolve issues that fall within the competence of religious organizations, the UOC Chancellor notes.
“This situation requires your immediate intervention in order to preserve peace and stability in the state,” the hierarch urges the president. “Every effort must be made to stop this lawlessness.”
“We ask you, dear Vladimir Alexandrovich, to immediately intervene and protect the rights of Ukrainian citizens—the faithful of the Boryspil Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church—and to take all possible measures to stop religious hatred and the violation of the unity of the Ukrainian people,” Met. Anthony concludes.
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