Boryspil, Ukraine, September 15, 2026
Photo: pravlife.info
His Eminence Metropolitan Anthony of Boryspil is calling on the faithful of his diocese to make three prostrations every day, praying for the softening of the hearts of those working against the Church.
The Chancellor of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church issued the appeal in a statement marking the Church new year, addressing a recent move by Ukraine’s State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience against the Boryspil Diocese.
Between August 24 and September 8, the Service studied whether the diocesan administration shows signs of affiliation with a foreign religious organization whose activity is banned in Ukraine—a clear reference to the Russian Orthodox Church. On September 9, it issued an order finding such signs.
In practice, these investigations are a formality, since the Service has already declared the Kiev Metropolia, the UOC’s administrative center, connected to the Moscow Patriarchate, meaning any diocese tied to it is liable to be declared connected as well.
Metropolitan Anthony says the diocesan administration never received official notice by mail, and that investigators never contacted the diocese for documents or clarification of its position before issuing the order. He says the state’s case rests on materials published more than a decade ago, whose current relevance was never established, and that the findings contain nothing showing the diocese actually broke Ukrainian law.
He goes on to note a broader pattern: decisions against the UOC keep landing on dates with particular spiritual weight, pointing out that this one was announced on the eve of the feast of the Council of the Fathers of the Kiev Caves. He says this doesn’t prove the timing was deliberate, but for believers, the coincidence still raises painful questions.
Turning to the relationship between Church and state more broadly, Metropolitan Anthony says the state has no authority to determine what a person believes or how they worship, and that the Church, as the mystical Body of Christ, doesn’t derive its existence from any state institution.
“To believe in God, a person doesn’t need an official’s permission; to pray to Christ, he doesn’t need the sanction of a state body,” he says. He recalls that the Church traces its roots to the catacombs under persecution and pagan imperial decrees. Earthly authority, he says, can shut a church but can’t shut Heaven, can ban a gathering but can’t ban prayer.
The Metropolitan emphasizes that the Church cannot answer hostility with hostility, and that the task now is to keep Christ’s peace and pray for those working against it. Thus, he calls on the faithful to make three prostrations each day for the softening of hostile hearts.
“History shows that unlawful decrees get reassessed, officials change, ideological trends fade, but Christ remains the same yesterday, today and forever,” he says, urging the faithful not to fear or despair. He closes by quoting Christ’s words in the Gospel of Luke: “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the Kingdom.”
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