Poroshenko: If they call to take over a temple, they are Moscow agents

Head of the Ukrainian State Petro Poroshenko

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko said that the creation of the Single Local Ukrainian Orthodox Church is a path to peace, mutual understanding, and unity. He said about this in his address on Thursday, October 11, reports NEWSONE.

According to the President, joining the SLC is a matter of free choice for every believer, thus no one will force them to join the “independent Church”.

“There has never been and will never be a state-run church,” said Poroshenko. “No one is going to force anyone to join the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, consecrated by the Tomos. I stress once again that this is a matter of free choice for every believer. The joint creation of an independent Church cannot be a basis for contention, opposition, violence, and we will not allow this to happen.”

The President underscored he does not intend to incite a religious war in Ukraine.

“If you happen to see people who are calling to take the Lavra, a monastery or a temple by force, you should understand that it is Moscow agents,” Petro Poroshenko warned. “Because the goal of the Kremlin is to kindle a religious war in Ukraine.” This is definitely not my plan; nor is it a plan of the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian state. ”

Earlier, the Security Service of Ukraine has already warned that Moscow is planning “incitement of inter-confessional hostility, which is due to the possibility of Ukraine receiving the Tomos, as well as organizing events of active influence with a view to so-called forcing the Ukrainian leadership to make concessions to the aggressor state.”

At the same time, the immediate initiator of the creation of an “independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” chief of the Kiev Patriarchate Filaret Denisenko, started off a flammable topic of grabbing the Lavras from the UOC and transferring them to the SLC.

Threats against the UOC regularly come from the camp of organizations such as Right Sector, S14, National Corps and others who claim: “It is we who will become the main force to take control of the temples and transfer them to the Local Church. And then we will see who will do himself justice!”

It is worth noting the actions of some Uniate chaplains, for example, N. Medinsky and M. Dziuba, who were active participants in the seizure of the UOC church in Kolomyia.

As the UOC hierarch, Metropolitan Anthony of Borispol and Brovary noted, today opponents of the canonical Church often declare a possible staging of various provocations by the UOC, including the seizures of their own temples, which is completely absurd.

Recall, on October 11, the Synod of the Constantinople Patriarchate decided to “continue to move towards the Ukrainian autocephaly” and lifted the anathema from the leaders of schismatic religious organizations – head of the UOC KP Filaret Denisenko and head of the UAOC Makary Maletich.

Read also