Metropolitan Anthony: People in temples seek God, not a political idea

Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich) of Boryspil and Brovary. Photo: a screenshot of the video on the Facebook page of the “Orthodox Herald” channel

A number of media outlets misrepresented information about the UOC, but the number of its parishes and believers continues to increase, said the UOC Chancellor, Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich) of Boryspil and Brovary on May 5, 2020, as reported by the UOC Information Centre.

“In fact, despite the pressure and manipulations with the public consciousness, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is not decreasing, even taking into account the seizures of our churches and re-registration, we are increasing every year. This suggests that believers understand why they come to the temple. They do not go to a political institute; people seek God and find Him in true temples – temples of the canonical Church. This openness of the Ukrainian people to God is thus translated through the opening of new parishes. There was an order at the local level not to register our new parishes.

Only last year, when the power changed, they gradually began to register our parishes. Nevertheless, every year, even under the previous government, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has increased both in the number of parishes and in the number of believers. If people are looking for not a political idea, but God, they come to a true church where God is present,” Metropolitan Anthony emphasized.

He noted that now a number of media outlets continue to distort information about the UOC, and the television companies funded by taxpayers, who are also believers, do not broadcast UOC services under quarantine.

“Even Easter services, unfortunately, were not broadcast by channels that exist at the expense of taxpayers. We are the greatest denomination. This means that the vast majority of Ukrainian citizens are members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Injustice is striking.

Thank God, there are other channels and opportunities to broadcast our services, but it is precisely those channels that exist at our expense, taxes, that simply ignore us. We understood this during the previous regime of Poroshenko. Why is this happening now? This is a mystery to me,” the bishop shared.

Metropolitan Anthony emphasized that with the change of state power, believers nevertheless felt a change in the situation.

“I can’t say what they think, I can only assume because this is not just a situation with television, we see it in many areas of the state and public life, when, on the one hand, the highest authority in the person of the President declares that they in the religious field, it does not support any particular denomination.

When Vladimir Zelensky came to power, we felt it. There are no planned systemic operations against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to seize our churches and re-register. Nevertheless, the bureaucracy and Poroshenko’s legacy are very resilient and many live in that tradition of the destruction of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Maybe I speak harshly but now the question is not in delicacy but to give the right assessment of what has happened and what is going on. In the past period, it was not just about discrimination against our Church, it was a question of the destruction of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. This was impossible even with such strong pressure from the entire state machine and the press that served this order,” the hierarch said.

Metropolitan Anthony recalled how a number of media outlets misrepresented the events of 2016.

“I now recall the year 2016, when the procession was held from the west to the centre and from the east to the center; from the Pochaiv Lavra to Kyiv and from the Sviatogorsk Lavra to Kyiv. What did they write about us? What were the statements that a special operation was being carried out – not believers, but saboteurs and Russian special forces were going ... Then some had the courage to admit that they wrote by order. Unfortunately, this trail of what was said, one way or another, remains in the minds of many people.

People believe what is said on TV. They used to believe what was written in the book, but now they believe what is said from television screens. People who are not deeply churched, they evaluate life in many ways through the prism of what they are told,” said the UOC Chancellor.

As reported earlier, Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich) stated that Christianity is the destiny of strong and courageous people, and humility is valuable in the eyes of God and is His gift given to the man for a brave heart.

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