Kiev, September 18, 2023
The Kiev city coat of arms. Photo: Wikipedia In yet another anti-Christian escalation against the historical and canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, two commissions of the Kiev City Council are currently examining a project that calls for the demolition of dozens of Orthodox churches.
The draft decision was authored by Vadim Vasilchuk from the pro-European Voice (Holos) faction of the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament).
According to the documents on the City Council website, the initiative is based on the idea that the “governing center [of the UOC] is located outside Ukraine in a state that is recognized by law as having committed military aggression against Ukraine and/or temporarily occupied part of the territory of Ukraine,” or that the UOC “has canonical and prayerful ties with religious organizations of the aggressor country.”
The Kiev regime refuses to recognize the UOC's autonomy, or its declaration of independance from the MP made at the beginning of the Special Military Operation, although the UOC elects its own bishops, ordains its own priests, has its own holy synod, and at its meetings makes its own decisions concerning its Church life, entirely independent of Moscow. Or rather, the regimes perhaps recognizes these facts, but knows that the Orthodox faithful are still part of historical Rus', which was born in the same baptismal font in Kiev. The Kiev regime and its backers understand that as long as the true, canonical Orthodox Church remains standing in Ukraine, they can never completely achieve the total destruction of the spiritual and historical bond between Ukraine, Russian, and Belorus. But since the Ukrainian faithful are not willing to sacrifice the salvation of their souls in order to please the authorities and their supporters, they continue to remain in the canonical Church.
Therefore, the Kiev Council (not comprised entirely of Orthodox Christians) considers that the only alternative is to destroy churches, as did their communist predecessors.
The draft calls for the Department of Land Resources and district administration to inspect land plots that are in use by the UOC to determine the legality of the construction of churches on them. If it is determined that the churches supposedly don’t have the necessary permits, they will be destroyed, at the expense of the Church.
Using phrases worthy of George Orwell, the author of the project claims that destroying the churches and depriving the Ukrainian people of their places of worship will “contribute to the establishment of harmony and peace on religious grounds.”
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