UOC spokesman: Authorities may take away temples, not faithful, from Church
Deputy Head of the Department for External Church Relations of the UOC Protopriest Nikolai Danilevich
Commenting on the situation around the Pochaev Lavra, Protopriest Nikolai Danilevich, Deputy Head of the Department for External Church Relations of the UOC, said that officials are trying to make the monastery defenceless in front of them, reports the "1Kozak" channel.
“The situation that has developed around the Pochaev Lavra tells us that no matter what legal documents our temples and monasteries possess, in our country all documents, the most super-legal ones, can be cancelled. And therefore, the documents will not save, people will save,” the UOC spokesman emphasized.
According to him, “a church where people go will be at least difficult to take away ... The Pochaev Lavra is a holy place where entire Ukraine comes, and not only Ukraine but Moldova, Belarus, Orthodox people from Russia ... They think that they will take away temples from us, and together with temples, they will take away people. They are wrong.”
As the UOJ reported, President Poroshenko earlier said that the state guarantees the right to freedom of religion, but the Moscow Patriarchate will no longer “grandstand” here.
Read also
Georgian Church Synod to present three candidates for Patriarchal throne
Georgian hierarchs will select candidates for the Patriarchal throne, after which the Extended Council will make the final decision.
Metropolitan Tychikos' lawyers respond to media accusations
The hierarch's lawyers called the television stories targeted harassment.
EU Court: Hungary's law protecting children from LGBT violates legislation
The European Court ruled that Hungary's ban on promoting LGBT ideology among minors contradicts "EU values".
Facts of persecution against UOC included in world's human rights report
The Amnesty International report points to pressure on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and criticism from UN experts.
Pasika activist urges believers to join Uniates if they don't want to go to OCU
Choknadiy called on UOC believers to join the Greek Catholic Church, since they refuse to join the OCU.
OCU “priest” urges SBU to punish local community head for backing UOC faithful
Volodymyr Pedko was outraged that a fallen serviceman was buried by a cleric of the canonical Church and promised to “sort things out” with the local authorities after the holidays.