UOC hierarch: “Serving” of the OCU at St. Sophia typifies double standards

Archbishop Feodosy of Cherkasy and Kanev. Photo: cherkasy.church.ua

The situation with the "service" of the OCU in the St. Sophia Cathedral of Kyiv and refusing the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the same request is a typical example of double standards in relation to religious organizations in Ukraine. The head of the Cherkasy Diocese of the UOC, Archbishop Feodosy (Snigirev), said this in a commentary to the UOJ.

“A typical and predictable example,” the hierarch clarified. "We've been used to it for a long time."

According to him, the fact that this kind of discriminatory and anti-constitutional attitude towards the UOC – the largest and most numerous confession in Ukraine – is a "norm" for our politicians and officials no one is surprised by, because, "unfortunately, this is a reality of our life. Criminal, wild, medieval, but nevertheless – reality."

“Will our country ever return to the legal and constitutional field in the religious sphere? Hopefully, yes. But for this to happen, the state and society must overcome the grave consequences of recent years, when, for the sake of instant political and pre-election benefits, our politicians shamelessly and rudely played the religious card, when the relative interfaith peace and balance in society was violated, and an unprecedented anti-church propaganda was launched in the media.

This hard legacy in our country must be overcome without fail. Otherwise, it will hardly be possible even to hope for a legal order and the well-being of society in the future,” summed up Archbishop Feodosy of Cherkasy and Kanev.

Recall that on December 15, 2020, the OCU held a "thanksgiving prayer" at the St. Sophia Cathedral of the capital on the occasion of the two-year anniversary of its foundation. Earlier, the Ministry of Culture, under the pretext of the coronavirus epidemic, refused the UOC to hold a service on the territory of the Sophia Kyivska National Reserve.

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