UOC spokesman: Church will do everything necessary to protect Bishop Gedeon

Protopriest Nikolai Danilevich, deputy head of the UOC DECR

Protopriest Nikolai Danilevich, deputy head of the UOC DECR, believes that a policy of double standards is now being pursued in Ukraine: friends have all, foes – the law. 
“There is much uncertainty and more questions than answers in this story,” said the spokesperson for the UOC in his commentary for the “1Kozak” channel regarding the deportation of Bishop Gedeon (Kharon), which took place on February 14, 2019. “Apparently, the question of deprivation of citizenship is in no way connected with the loss of a passport (...) We know about Ulyana Suprun that she has both American and Ukrainian citizenship, and no one expels her from the country. Even the head of the UGCC Svyatoslav Shevchuk declared dual citizenship, that he has a Vatican passport. Nobody deports Vladyka Svyatoslav to Rome.”

The priest noted that now there is some “era of the absurd” around the Church, and regarding the situation with Vladyka Gedeon, “we are waiting for some reasonable explanation for the logical understanding of the picture”.

“There is an opinion that the actions that were applied to Vladyka Gedeon are related to his public statements, his trip to America and communication in the US Congress, where he talked about harassment and violations of the rights of UOC believers, about the seizures of temples,” the deputy head of the UOC DECR said. “Also, a court meeting was due to take place regarding the legitimacy of the appeal of the Parliament of our country to Patriarch Bartholomew on receiving the Tomos, where Vladyka Gedeon was the plaintiff. In addition, on February 21, there should be a hearing for the Tithe (Desiatinny) Monastery, there is also one question where he should be. Therefore, all these events somehow add up to a single picture of what external people, experts say.”

According to the clergyman, the information sphere is heated to the max, and many people, including representatives of other faiths, are very outraged by what has happened.

“There is a feeling that we see a policy of double standards or selective application of legislation,” he added. “For my part, I want to say that our Church will help Vladyka Gideon resolve this issue legally because the issue primarily concerns him personally since his rights were violated. Legal services will provide the necessary assistance to address this issue."

Father Nikolai emphasized that Vladyka Gedeon remained a bishop of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the abbot of the Tithe (Desiatinny) Monastery.

“He has not been removed from church office, he has not committed any church crime. (...) Our Church will do everything necessary to protect its bishop and return him to Ukraine so that he will live in the country in which he was born. He was born in Ukraine, his parents live in Ukraine, he had citizenship, a passport and no one asked any questions,” the UOC spokesperson assured the public and wished everyone to remain calm.

“Despite everything that is happening now, you need to behave calmly, with dignity. Because if you feel that you are right, that you have not done anything for which you could be condemned – behave calmly and with dignity, even if at some time the human court will condemn you or somehow discredit or slander you. (...) Therefore, I want to wish myself and all of us above all to be honest before God, before people, and before self. If you live like this, you are absolutely calm, no matter what can happen to you. Be calm, despite the storms that are around us, which occur almost every day. Despite the fact that the news from the official website of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church resembles reports from the front, so much seized, taken away, here thrown out, there not thrown out, here defended, there won back and sued – this definitely won’t last forever,” concluded Protopriest Nikolai Danilevich.

As the UOJ reported, early in the morning of February 14, 2019, Bishop Gedeon (Kharon) of Makarov was deported to the United States. The night before, the SBU officers had detained him at the Borispol airport, without any explanation of the reasons, and the State Border Service officers took his foreign passport. Later it became known that the detention of the abbot of the Tithe Monastery occurred on the eve of the session of the Supreme Court on the claim to invalidate the appeal of the Parliament to Patriarch Bartholomew on receiving the Tomos.

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