Don't be like a deputy prime minister
Iryna Vereshchuk. Photo: minre.gov.ua
She implied that wherever Ukrainians are abroad, there "should be our Ukrainian Church" (meaning the OCU).
Why did we pay particular attention to this statement? After all, there have been many similar statements from the authorities in the last 24 hours.
Firstly, it is striking in its incompetence, as the provisions of the Tomos prohibit the OCU from overseeing Ukrainians outside the country.
Secondly, Vereshchuk surprised with a sudden 180° shift in her "church" stance.
In 2022, she was prepared to participate in a procession with the UOC to Mariupol alongside Metropolitan Onuphry. At that time, she clearly did not consider the UOC a "hostile Russian Church".
In 2019, Vereshchuk even made shocking statements. She referred to the Tomos of the OCU as a "conflict factor", "pure politics" and a pre-election technology of Poroshenko. She claimed that Ukraine has had the Tomos since the 1990s.
"We have the Tomos from Patriarch Alexy. Why are we only now and only in this manner talking about it?" Vereshchuk asked on television.
Perhaps, many have noticed that in life there are outright and principled enemies, and there are "weathervanes" that waver with the "party line". The situation with the Church is the same. In the Rada, there are Poroshenko and his aides from "EU", and there are "servants" who recently supported the UOC but now act according to the Soviet slogan, "The Party says – we must! The Komsomol replies – we will!"
It is these people who now appear particularly wretched.
Read also
Can we judge those who joined the OCU from the military commissariat?
There are many known cases where priests and deacons of the UOC, detained by TRC officers, were offered a simple way to secure their release – to switch to the OCU. Most refused.
On Rivne Metropolitan's excuse for service in Jerusalem
If today we consider it possible to make excuses for concelebrating with the ROC, what will we have to justify tomorrow?
UOC isn’t banned, just ‘de-Russified’? Neither was UGCC under Stalin then
By Shevchuk’s logic, Stalin never banned the UGCC or curtailed freedom of conscience – he merely “freed” the souls of the Uniates from Bandera ideology.
A dip in the Jordan on “one – two – three”
Well-known OCU blogger in “holy orders” Oleksii Filiuk has come up with his own theological formula on the banks of the Jordan. It goes like this: “One – two – three.”
On the situation at Sviatohirsk Lavra
After the killing of Monk Varsonofiy and the attempted murder of two other monastery residents, many patriots claimed that the crime had been committed by enemy saboteurs.
You’re happy, aren’t you? Then why change anything?
The KIIS poll seems to be telling the U.S. authorities: Look, Ukrainians like living this way. They’re not just satisfied with everything – they’re happy. They don’t need peace, so why change anything?