Mosiychuk: Is the move from Moscow to Constantinople spiritual independence?
Ihor Mosiychuk. Photo: Facebook
Ukrainian politician and public figure Ihor Mosiychuk stated that everything the government is doing under the guise of combating the Moscow Patriarchate (MP) is actually destroying Orthodoxy and is "completely unrelated to establishing its own canonical Local Church." In an interview on journalist Oleksandr Shelest's channel, Mosiychuk, a supporter of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP), emphasized that the government is deceiving the people by talking about spiritual independence.
"Is moving from Moscow to Constantinople spiritual independence? If it's about spiritual independence, it should be the Kyiv Patriarchate, not the Constantinople one. Why lie to people? You're creating a Constantinople exarchate, fleeing from Moscow’s lord to Istanbul’s lord, while talking to us about independence?" the politician exclaimed.
He argued that President Zelensky's actions to ban the UOC are not beneficial to him; rather, his approval rating will drop since most of his voters were UOC members.
Mosiychuk also questioned the ethnic background of UOC clergy.
"Everyone is running around shouting 'Moscow priests'. My question is, how did it happen that most of the 'Moscow' parishes are located in Volhynia, Rivne, and Bukovyna? This is Western Ukraine, a rebellious region. And people attend these parishes and don't want to give them up!" the politician said.
Mosiychuk expressed confidence that the government is trying to create a state church and warned against such a move.
"You can't build a state church; it ends badly, even where these projects were successful. It alienates people because the Church is about faith, not about the state. The main goal of all these actions is to turn people away from faith," concluded the former MP.
As reported by the UOJ, earlier the UOC-KP stated that the Tomos from the Patriarch of Constantinople, as highlighted in the publication, brought subordination to the Greek throne.
Read also
Odessa Diocese: OCU seized the Alexander Nevsky church using a security firm
OCU supporters, backed by a security agency, forcibly seized a UOC church in Odessa, beating parishioners and priests.
Archons: The Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church attacked the privileges of our Patriarchate
The Archons of the Phanar stated that the Russian Orthodox Church is waging a systematic “disinformation war” against Constantinople.
The roof of the shell-damaged Assumption Cathedral of the Lavra has been covered with film
Conservation work on the roof of the Assumption Cathedral at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra has been completed.
Members of the AUCCRO told the European Commissioner about two Maidan movements
In Brussels, the AUCCRO delegation assured the European Commissioner that the Ukrainian people had definitively chosen the “European path.”
The Odessa Diocese showed how they revived from ruins a church seized by the OCU
The Odessa Diocese of the UOC published archival footage of the abandoned shrine, which believers had been raising from ruins for years.
In Britain, Evangelical Alliance urges Christians to preach among Muslims
British evangelicals urged Christians to stop fearing Islam and begin seeing migrants as a “mission field.”