Shostatsky: UOC did not send money to Moscow

"Hierarch" of the OCU Simeon (Shostatsky). Photo: eukraina.com

The ex-Metropolitan of the UOC Simeon (Shostatsky), who has gone into schism, celebrates 25 years of his “bishopric” this year. He said in an interview with DetectorUA that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church did not send money to Moscow.

Answering a journalist's question whether it is true that the ROC has always held on to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church because of money, the “hierarch” of the OCU noted that it was “not too much financially”.

“Because we did not send money to Moscow, we didn’t pay tax there,” he explained. “But at the same time, the Ukrainian Church supported (Moscow – Ed.)  because everything related to the objects of church use, everything that is used in the Church, was bought there, in Moscow. Especially expensive, as they say, things – crosses, panagias, mitres, vestments. Everything was from there then"

At the same time, Shostatsky actually spoke of the "support of Moscow" on the part of Ukrainian Uniates and schismatics, stressing that in Sofrino, near Moscow, where the main production of church items is located, "both Catholics and Greek Catholics purchased their own things, including as they said at the time, the schismatics of the Kyiv Patriarchate or the Autocephalous Church – our branches of Orthodoxy in Ukraine. Everyone went there and could buy everything for themselves."

“This is the side that we call the material, monetary - only take goods there. As for financing directly – this was not the case. As a bishop, I can say that there was no such thing,” Shostatsky said.

As reported, the "hierarch" of the OCU Simeon (Shostatsky) believes in the restoration of "human and church" relations with his friends from the time of their studies at the Moscow Theological Seminary, most of whom "have temporarily left".

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