Ukrainians about law No. 5309: what is going on is dreadful

The people wish admonition to politicians and good health to His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy of Kiev and All Ukraine

Citizens of Ukraine are frightened by what is happening now in the religious life of the country, including by bill No. 5309 adopted by the authorities, the Odessa eparchy of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine told on Facebook.

“What is happening there is generally scary. And what can we say? We can only keep praying to God, asking for enlightenment,” commented one of the residents of Ukraine on the bill on renaming religious organizations, adopted on December 20, 2018 by MPs of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

According to the people, the idea of forcible renaming of the Church can only lead to heightened tensions.

“Only the Church itself can rename the Church. This is the first point. And secondly, it seems to me, all this is inciting another confrontation in our country. In my opinion, this is very bad! This is not order, this is not peace, this is a provocation, and this is simply setting people to fight against with one another. However, it is necessary to strive for peace instead,” said one of the survey participants.

People are surprised by the stepped-up accusations of anti-state activities addressed by politicians toward the canonical Church.

“Everything what is done by metropolitans in all eparchies, of course, is done only for Ukraine, for the people of Ukraine. For how many years everyone has been working, assembling and building monasteries, a huge number of churches have been erected, people come and pray only for Ukraine, for peace,” one of the respondents recalled.

Even a supporter of the Single Local Church noted that the adopted bill No. 5309 annoys people and is absolutely meaningless.

Many respondents wished His Beatitude Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine health and promised not to betray him.

And one of the Ukrainian women did not talk about the religious life of the country but wished the MPs to try to live on one pension, having to pay at the same time for utilities and buy necessary medicines.

On December 20, 2018, Parliament Speaker Andrei Paruby declared his conviction that “everyone who is a Ukrainian and a patriot should support the voting” for anti-church law No. 5309.

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