KDAiS rector: We expect new round of discrimination from Fanar head’s visit

Епископ Сильвестр (Стойчев). Фото: news.church.ua

We expect a new round of discrimination against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from the arrival of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople to Ukraine, said the rector of the Kyiv Theological Academy and Seminary (KDAiS), Bishop Sylvester (Stoychev) of Bilogorodka, on the air of “Pershy Nezalezhny”.

“As the officials of our Church have repeatedly noted, our attitude to the invitation of the head of the Church of Constantinople, Patriarch Bartholomew, to visit Ukraine is not just negative, we expect a new round of discrimination, from simply informational to, alas, the possibility of violence against our parishioners, especially in some regions of Ukraine,” said the hierarch of the UOC, answering a question from journalists about his attitude to the announced Patriarch Bartholomew’s visit to celebrate the Independence Day of Ukraine at the invitation of top officials of the country.

The rector of the KDAiS noted that "after all, there is also an intra-church etiquette, an intra-church organization of life".

When Patriarch Bartholomew was invited, “the complexity of the religious situation in Ukraine and the consequences should have been taken into account,” emphasized Bishop Sylvester.

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