UOC spokesman: They want to bring a political virus into the Body of Church

Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich. Photo: UOJ

From the first years of the Ukrainian state independence, various state representatives have really gone to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, but this is by no means the “majority of the population” of Ukraine. The spokesperson for the UOC, Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich, spoke about this in the program “Fast Immersion” on the “1Kozak” channel, commenting on the recent interview with Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.

“It should be stated that Patriarch Bartholomew took the socio-political logic in the Ukrainian church question,” said the priest. “Indeed, from the first years of independence, representatives of the Ukrainian state, various authorities, who changed, have gone to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. But it was a handful of people who were concerned about the issues of autocephaly and they did not represent the believing people – these are officials who changed every 5 years. And you cannot take those messages that came from them as messages from all believing Orthodox people.”

Father Nikolai emphasized: religious processions and the activity of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by region shows how many people, priests, monastics actually constitute it, what kind of church activity really takes place in Ukraine.

“The Church lives a full life, and this Church did not appeal to Patriarch Bartholomew, but representatives of schismatics — the UAOC, the UOC-KP or the present OCU — addressed him,” the archpriest recalled. “Moreover, we remember how last June more than 400 thousand signatures were handed over to Patriarch Bartholomew from the believers of our Church with a request not to do what he wanted to. Half a million signatures were collected in less than a month or even two weeks. Therefore, in the argument of Bartholomew, we see a completely political logic."

The UOC spokesperson noted that it was “regrettable and painful” to observe this, “because I personally know Patriarch Bartholomew, Metropolitan Emmanuel of France and others. When you know a person personally, you are very worried. And all the Local Orthodox Churches are going through this.”

“Now they want to bring this political virus into the Body of the Church, and the Church is fighting against it,” stressed the UOC spokesperson.

As reported earlier, Patriarch Bartholomew said that the “majority of the population” of Ukraine asked him for the Tomos, and also announced that the OCU would soon be recognized by the Church of Greece.

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