Ukrainian nationalists report on results of the pro-OCU action
The organizers of the action in support of the OCU have actively used the hashtags "down_with_invaders_in_cassocks" and "church_occupant"
On January 6, 2019, members of the NGO Right Sector held an all-Ukrainian action in support of the OCU “Go to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine”, but the event did not bring the expected results to the nationalists, reports the Right Sector’s website.
According to the information on the site, the nationalists tried to persuade the UOC believers from the Borispol, Kiev region, Khmelnitsky, Kamenets-Podolsky, Poltava, Lvov, Vinnitsa, Sumy, Ternopol, Chernigov, Rovno and Odessa to transfer to the newly created church structure. The activists gathered near the cathedrals of the listed cities, in Odessa they came to the St. Elijah Monastery.
However, similar messages and reporting photos showed that the actions of the OCU supporters were not numerous, and the parishioners of the canonical Church did not join them. For example, in Poltava, their arguments were simply ignored.
“Unfortunately, the parishioners did not want to listen to common sense and convinced nationalists that the Moscow Church in Ukraine is a normal phenomenon,” the website of the Right Sector reports on the results of the rally in support of the OCU near the St. Macarius Cathedral of Poltava.
However, the nationalists are not determined to stop.
“The NGO Right Sector will continue the dialogue with Orthodox Ukrainians, who, due to certain circumstances, have not yet decided which Church to belong to,” the organizers of the action concluded their report.
We recall that the “Right Sector” organized their “open dialogues” in support of the OCU at the churches of the UOC throughout Ukraine. “We want every Orthodox believer to go to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and revive national identity. The Moscow Church forces Ukrainians to doubt their own independence and power, but right now the time has come to go peacefully to the Ukrainian Church,” the nationalists declared about the purpose of the action.
After the clergy and laity of the UOC expressed concern about the actions of the “Right Sector” members, the organizers of the “open dialogues” in support of the OCU stated that the “Church of the Moscow Patriarchate” was allegedly planning “bloody actions”. “Now the age-old enemy of the Ukrainian nation cannot accept the loss of its influence, which was carried out through the network of the so-called ‘Church of the Moscow Patriarchate’. The ROC supporters are increasingly beginning to show aggression. Kremlin marionettes are smoothly preparing us for "big blood in the case of Tomos", the nationalists said.
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