AFU volunteer: Church raiders don’t care which church not to go

A parishioner of the Holy Trinity Church of the UOC in Brovary became a volunteer in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Photo: screenshot from the video of the Telegram channel Dozor na "Pershy Kozatsky"

A serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stated that those who illegally transfer churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to the OCU do not attend them themselves. In a comment to the Telegram channel "Dozor na "Peshy Kozatsky," Ukrainian soldier Valeriy, a parishioner of the Holy Trinity Church of the UOC in Brovary, said, "These are the ones who are not parishioners, they don't go to church, they don't care where not to go. I tell them: what difference does it make to you which patriarchate it will be? You don't come here. Those who go to church have no thoughts of switching to another denomination."

The soldier shared that he has been attending the Holy Trinity Church for over 10 years and sings in the choir. At the beginning of the war, he started going to the Territorial Defense Unit with a proposal to call him into the army, and since then, he has been serving in the AFU ranks.

Valeriy emphasized that there is "nothing Moscow" in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. He reminded that Metropolitan Onuphry condemned the invasion from the first days of the war.

The soldier also refuted some common myths about the UOC. "We don't make any transfers (to Russia, — Ed.) as people unfamiliar with the church charter say. I know this from the inside. This is the Ukrainian Church, canonical, which has been operating from the very beginning of Ukraine's statehood," noted Valeriy. "They say that the UOC does not hold funerals for the dead warriors. It's a lie. We have daily lithanies, prayer services, we bury the dead soldiers, and we pray for the health of the defenders."

The serviceman also shared that since the full-scale invasion by Russia, clergy and parishioners of his church gather every morning for an akathist, during which they pray for peace in Ukraine, followed by a car procession with icons around Brovary.

"It is my deep conviction that they (Russian troops, — Ed.) did not enter Brovary due to this continual prayer," emphasized Valeriy.

As reported by the UOJ, on November 26, 2023, the community of the Holy Trinity Church in Brovary held a parish meeting, unanimously confirming its loyalty to the UOC.

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