A sign-in to protect the UOC commenced on the Net

Over 400,000 citizens of Ukraine have already expressed their concern about the actions of the authorities against the Church

The PO "Rule of Law" non-governmental organization supported the all-Ukrainian civic discussion “Let’s protect the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Together!” initiative, which was reported on the organization’s official Facebook page. Now every Ukrainian can express his/her disagreement with the intervention of politicians in the religious life of the people.

According to the head of the organization, Alexey Starodubov, over 400,000 citizens of Ukraine have already signed the “Declaration on the Preservation of the UOC”, and thus spoke out against the pressure of state power on the Church.

The declaration says that everyone who signed in does not agree with the renaming of church organizations under compulsion, appealing to the Ecumenical Patriarch on creation of the Single Local Church in Ukraine, and banning “Orthodox religion as non-patriotic / anti-state activity whatsoever.”

“Since there were no such intentions in the election agenda published by the CEC, we did not accept such an order, being the electorate, in the framework of the all-Ukrainian referendum or in public discussions, as the will of the people,” wrote the participants of the all-Ukrainian public discussion in an open letter to the President of Ukraine.

Recall that on December 1, 2018, Poroshenko declared that the UOC could no longer be able to “stigmatize who is canonic and who is graceless,” which is why the Moscow Patriarchate will no longer be “grandstanding”, although the state guarantees the right to freedom of religion.

On the same day, about twenty priests of Rovno eparchy and the deans of Sarna eparchy were summoned for questioning to the Office of the Security Service of Ukraine in Rovno region. The interrogation was scheduled for December 5, 2018.

Read also