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
On Budanov's statement regarding UOC
For Yelensky and his the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Affairs and Freedom of Conscience (DESS), Budanov's statement was very untimely.
Why does OCU still celebrate Easter “with Moskals”?
On social media, “patriots” are again asking in exasperation: why are we still celebrating Easter with Moscow? How much longer?
Did Patriarch Bartholomew really mourn Filaret’s death?
Constantinople has never recognized Filaret as a patriarch – not “His Holiness,” not “honorary,” not under any title whatsoever. That alone makes the line in the Ukrainian presidential press service’s report sound astonishingly implausible.
Why did Dumenko sit in Metropolitan Onufriy’s chair?
The head of the OCU has his own residence – and Filaret’s residence as well. But what he needs is the Lavra, Metropolitan Onufriy’s office and chair.
Dumenko came up with a way to fill the Lavra
In fact, the St. Theodosius Monastery has been liquidated, and now "female monasticism" will be developed there.