Yurash outraged at UOC lawsuit vs MinCult on registration of OCU

Head of the Department for Religious Affairs and Nationalities of the Ministry of Culture Andrei Yurash. Photo: Facebook

On June 25, 2019, the head of the Department for Religious and Nationalities of the Ministry of Culture, Andrei Yurash, commented on Facebook the UOC claim to the court to cancel the registration of the religious center of the OCU.

In connection with the lawsuit, the official who is directly responsible for the issues of state interaction with religious organizations, very emotionally expressed “surprise from legal nihilism, arrogance, lack of confidence not in logic or reasoning, but in that everything can be solved by pressure and undisguised lies implicated in unfounded charges and manipulations".

Yurash expressed genuine amazement that representatives of the UOC Law Department spotted a similarity between the name of the religious center of OCU “Kiev Metropolis of the UOC (OCU), registered on January 30, 2019, and the name of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kiev Metropolis of the UOC. According to the state official, there is a significant difference between them.

“Hey, colleagues, can really no one explain to the distinguished father that between the name of the administrative center of the UOC-MP and the administrative center of the UOC (OCU) (Yurash wrote here ‘UOC (MP)’, but apparently, he was mistaken – Ed.) the difference is as many as three words!!! What is it – ignorance, conscious falsification, or simply the belief that all people around are crass idiots?” writes Yurash.

The state official also rejects the argument that the name of the administrative center of UOC (OCU) does not correspond to the “primary title document” – Tomos (whereby the new religious structure is called "Orthodox Church of Ukraine" or "Holy Orthodox Church" - Ed.).

“God, what is going on in the minds of the opponents of the local Ukrainian Church: Eucharistic communion with Constantinople was broken off by the Moscow Patriarchate, the Tomos is not recognized and denounced, but they try to substantiate their own claims with provisions from the Tomos, issued by the hated Patriarchate of Constantinople!” resents Mr. Yurash.

“Verily – the collapse of identity and the abyss of fall!” emotionally concluded the head of the Department for Religious Affairs.

Earlier, the representative of the Ministry of Culture Andrei Yurash wrote about the lawsuit of the UOC that the attempt of believers to defend their rights is tantamount to an attempt to rename the evening time of the day to “the initial stage of the night”. He stated that the registration of the religious center of the OCU cannot be canceled just as it is impossible to force the Dnieper to flow from the Black Sea.

It is noteworthy that the compulsory change of the legitimate name of the canonical Church (which was registered back in 1991) is not considered by Yurash to be so unnatural but viewed as a test of obedience to the state by the UOC.

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