UOC Chancellor on church raid in Brovary: A crime against God and the law

Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich). Photo: Screenshot from the bishop's YouTube video

The seizure of churches is a grave sin against God and the very essence of the Church. Those who call themselves believers – and even priests – yet take churches by force, stray from the Spirit of Christ. So said Metropolitan Anthony of Boryspil and Brovary, the Chancellor of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), in response to the violent takeover of the UOC’s Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Brovary on April 30, 2025.

Metropolitan Anthony emphasized that this cathedral and others, built by the faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, “are being taken from the people of God to prevent them from praying in them.”

“A church is not just a building. It is a place where the Church community gathers, where the Sacrament of the Eucharist is celebrated, where the Word of God is proclaimed, and human souls are healed,” he said. “A violent seizure of a church is a desecration of all that is holy.”

The hierarch stressed that those who seize churches using force, malice, and hatred are turning away from the Spirit of Christ.

“Church seizures have nothing to do with peace – they are acts of hostility, inciting hatred, and deepening division among Christians. Unity of Church and state cannot be built on violence and lies. The seizure of churches is a grave sin against God and the very foundation of Christ’s Church,” the UOC Chancellor concluded.

The Metropolitan called on all Orthodox Christians to pray for peace in the Church, the state, and people’s hearts.

“May we defend the sanctity of Christ not with the sword, but with prayer – not with hatred, but with God's truth,” he said. “Even if the laws of the state cannot protect us, we believe that God, who by His Resurrection conquered death, will surely defend us, and justice will be restored with His help.”

As previously reported by the UOJ, around 4–5 a.m. on April 30, 2025, “priests” of the OCU seized the UOC’s Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral in the city of Brovary. They used an angle grinder to cut through the locks and replaced them with their own. The rector, Archpriest Oleksandr Levchuk, and the cathedral's parishioners remained faithful to the UOC.

About a month earlier, clergy of the OCU, led by Oleksandr Lyman, had already attempted a daytime takeover by trying to break the locks, but parishioners thwarted them. At that time, Father Oleksandr told the faithful that on March 13, 2025, an unlawful re-registration of the cathedral from the UOC to the OCU had taken place. Following this, local authorities demanded that the rector hand over the keys to the church.

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