UOC Chancellor: Now "neo-Orthodoxy" alien to faith of Church being created

Metropolitan Anthony. Photo: facebook.com/MitropolitAntoniy

The ecclesiastical situation in Ukraine is not only a question of the survival of the UOC but also a catalyst for the situation around the world, when there are attempts to impose "neo-Orthodoxy" on the Church, said the UOC Chancellor, Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich) of Boryspil and Brovary in a comment to the “Pershy Nezalezhny” channel.

According to Vladyka Anthony, faithfulness to the Orthodox faith has always helped Ukrainians to preserve their identity, but now the situation in the entire Orthodox world depends on this commitment.

“Now in the Orthodox world we see tendencies when the principles of canon law, disciplinary life and even faith are being replaced in order to shift the emphasis,” said the Metropolitan. “And I would even say that some new ‘neo-Orthodoxy’ is being created, which is generally unknown to the Orthodox Church.

Therefore, for Orthodox Ukraine it is already a question of survival not only of us as Orthodox people in Ukraine – we are now generally a catalyst of the situation in the Orthodox world."

A lot pf people are looking at Ukraine, how the church situation will develop, the UOC Chancellor emphasized.

“Our people, thank God, are mostly faithful to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and they testify to this with their own feet, because they come to churches, they come in thousands, hundreds of thousands to religious processions,” he said. “This is just evidence [of support for the UOC] – contrary to those polls that are artificially created – custom polls that try to convince our society that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is decreasing in number, that there are no supporters of ours.

But the temple, the divine service, the cross procession testify to the true situation in the church field, in Ukrainian Orthodoxy: the majority of Ukrainians, church people, are parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church."

As reported, Metropolitan Anthony spoke about the number of parishes, bishops and monasteries of the UOC.

Read also

In Dubivtsi, OCU activist unable to recite the Lord’s Prayer

The day after the incident, supporters of Dumenko called the police, frightened by the UOC faithful praying near the seized sanctuary.