UOC bishop on the OCU anniversary: They still emanate evil and hatred

Bishop Victor (Kotsaba) of Baryshivka. Photo: news.church.ua

Recurrent conflicts within the OCU, the existence of parallel dioceses led by immigrants from the UOC-KP and the UAOC, and most importantly, the perpetual hatred and anger on the part of schismatics against the believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church indicate that there is actually no so-called "unification council". Bishop Victor (Kotsaba) of Baryshivka wrote about this in his tg channel, commenting on the third anniversary of the creation of the OCU on the initiative of Patriarch Bartholomew and Petro Poroshenko.

According to the hierarch of the UOC, in the event of a real unification, there would be no seizure of churches and persecution of Orthodox Christians in Ukraine.

“After all, if the unification really took place, and the Ukrainian schismatics really received canonical status (as they themselves believe), then why would they seize temples of another canonical Church by force? Why then show an incomprehensible fierce anger towards the believers of the UOC, humiliate them and threaten them?" wrote Bishop Victor.

He cited as the recent incidence of aggression by adherents of the schismatic structure against the believers of the UOC. On December 15, 2021, supporters of the OCU, with the help of the police, cut off the locks on the church of the UOC in the village of Gvardiyske in the Khmelnytsky diocese, and on December 14, believers in the village of Snitkov in the Mohilev-Podilsk diocese gathered in their temple to protect it from church raiders.

The UOC hierarch believes that such actions make it clear that no unification has taken place.

“In fact, the OCU was created by combining exclusively two non-canonical structures – the UOC-KP and the UAOC. Neither the Ukrainian Orthodox Church nor the believing Orthodox people of Ukraine took part in this ‘unification’. It was not because they did not want this unity, but because they have long been united in Christ and His Holy Church,” wrote the head of the Representation of the UOC to international European Organizations and urged those “who still emanate anger and hatred” to study the Gospel, otherwise it is very difficult to become real Christians.

As the UOJ reported, the OCU is celebrating the anniversary of the "unification" of Ukrainian schismatics.

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