Spokesman of UOC: If you say "ROCU", then say Turkish Church in Ukraine

Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich. Photo: apostrophe.ua

Following the logic of those who call the UOC as the “Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine”, the OCU should be called the “Turkish Church in Ukraine”, accordingly. Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich, spokesman of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, wrote about this in his tg-channel.

The clergyman noted that the rhetoric of the OCU and some media outlets all the time manipulatively distorts the name of the Church, calling it ROCU – “Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine”, though you will never find this name or such a formal designation in any public registration documents, whether it be Ukrainian or Russian."

“This is an artifice of the OCU propagandists,” he stressed. “It can be actually sued. And it's high time to do it."

He explained that if one relies on the same logic that is applied to the UOC, referring to its canonical connection with the ROC and the alleged center in Moscow, then the OCU can be similarly called the "Turkish Church in Ukraine", since its Tomos directly spells out the connection of this religious structure with the Patriarchate of Constantinople, whose center is based in the capital of Turkey.

“It is obvious that their accusations against us, which they flood our information space and people's minds, are absurd,” added Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich. “We are believers of the UOC, we are Ukrainians, and to call us ‘Muscovites’, as they do, is the same as to call them ‘Turks’, since they are also Ukrainians and supporters of the ‘OCU’. Only for some reason this does not cause surprise in relation to the UOC due to frequent disinformation, but in relation to them, the name ‘Turks’ or ‘Turkish Orthodox Church in Ukraine’ may cause surprise. However, the logic is the same in the latter case!"

The priest clarified he had offered this comparison not in order to offend someone, but to show the absurdity of the logic of those who use a label artificially invented for the UOC.

He also refuted another thesis in the rhetoric of propagandists: that the UOC allegedly seized someone's name. This is a blatant lie, Archpriest Nicholas emphasized, “since our schismatics were called with whatever name in their history (UAOC, UOC-KP, OCU), but not the UOC. In fact, their desire to seize our name suggests an explicit and impudent raiding."

Earlier, Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich urged not to position the believers of the UOC as enemies of Ukraine.

Read also

If UOC is banned, we will become Carpatho-Russian Church, Uzhhorod priest

"You don’t need Russian, you don’t need Ukrainian — we’re returning to our own,” said Archpriest Dimitry Sydor.