Kiev, December 19, 2025
His Eminence Metropolitan Anthony of Boryspil and Brovary, Chancellor of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, has issued a lengthy statement reflecting on the current persecution facing the Church and calling on believers to maintain their faith and unity during the most difficult period since Ukraine’s independence.
Drawing parallels to the late 1980s, Met. Anthony recalls how the celebration of the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus’ in 1988 marked a spiritual awakening after decades of Soviet atheism. He notes that with Ukraine’s independence, believers trusted that “those responsible for the state’s structure and governance would heed the lessons of the past and would never again raise a hand against the Church.”
The Metropolitan states that only 30 years after this revival, during which “the Ukrainian land was adorned with thousands of gilded domes, hundreds of monasteries, and dozens of theological schools,” the situation has dramatically reversed. He describes how the UOC, “recognized by all Local Orthodox Churches as the sole canonical Church in Ukraine,” has faced increasing hostility, particularly over the past decade.
Addressing the events of 2018, His Eminence directly criticizes the role of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. “Unfortunately, the lion’s share of responsibility for this lawlessness lies personally with the primate of the Patriarchate of Constantinople,” he states. The Metropolitan recalls a 2018 visit to the Phanar when Patriarch Bartholomew told the UOC delegation: “I will never hurt the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.”
Met. Anthony then asks pointedly whether the Patriarch can now “look straight into the eyes” of His Eminence Metropolitan Arseny of Svyatogorsk, who “has been held in pre-trial detention for over a year,” as well as numerous other hierarchs who “have been or are still under investigation.” He mentions that His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry “has been stripped of his citizenship” and that many bishops and clergy “have been placed on the sanctions list, thus limiting their civil rights.”
The Chancellor describes the confiscation of churches, attacks on clergy and parishioners, and the current situation of the holy relics at the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, which he says are now “as it were, under arrest and subjected to some kind of experiments and research.”
His Eminence addresses recent government demands that the UOC modify its charter, rejecting suggestions that the Church can “formally” comply while maintaining its beliefs. “Christianity categorically rejects formalism and insincerity in behavior and words toward anyone or anything,” he states, comparing such demands to ancient persecutions when Christians were asked to offer incense to idols.
Met. Anthony insists that the UOC has been “independent and self-governing since the 1990s” according to the charter granted by His Holiness Patriarch Alexei II. “No one ever dictated to us what decisions the UOC Synod should make. Everything was decided exclusively in Kiev,” he affirms, while maintaining that the Church values its “spiritual, canonical unity” with universal Orthodoxy.
The Metropolitan warns against accepting either the government’s demands or the alternative of a “notorious exarchate,” stating that “the struggle is much deeper and at far more serious levels.” He quotes the Apostle Paul: For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the Heavenly places.
In closing, His Eminence cites St. Hilary of Poitiers: “The Church triumphs when she is harmed.” He tells believers that their current sorrows are “not a punishment, but a sign of our chosenness,” and calls on them to walk their path “with patience and courage, without betraying God or our Church, preserving ecclesiastical unity.”
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