UOC Chancellor: If authorities don’t protect our rights only hope’s for God

On June 18, 2022, Metropolitan Anthony of Boryspil and Brovary, the UOC Chancellor, in his address on the occasion of the beginning of Lent, said that if the authorities do not protect the rights of UOC believers, we hope only for God, reports the press service of the Boryspil Eparchy.

According to him, at a time when there is a war, churches and monasteries suffer and people die, certain forces seize churches of the UOC, thereby splitting the Ukrainian society.

"Recently, certain forces, who obviously do not need the unity of the Ukrainian people at such a critical historical moment, have become active. Engaged in openly destructive activities, these forces systematically incite religious hatred in our society. As a result, there are already numerous cases of forcible seizure of UOC churches, with humiliation and even beatings of believers. Clergymen, especially rectors of churches, are under unprecedented pressure in modern history to transfer parishes to the newly created so-called OCU. local self-government bodies are behind almost all cases of religious confrontation. It has come to the point that some of these bodies have taken absolutely illegal decisions to ban the activity of our Church within certain territorial communities. We have repeatedly appealed to representatives of the authorities and law enforcement agencies regarding the violation of the constitutional rights of believing citizens of Ukraine. But these appeals were not heard. On the contrary, some officials treacherously, resorting to outright lies, began to sow enmity among people and create conflict situations in the parishes of the Boryspil Eparchy," said Metropolitan Anthony.

"It is a pity that at the time when our believers, responding to the call of their Homeland, went to the front to defend its integrity, the local authorities, who, in the vast majority, do not belong to the Orthodox Church, by their actions and decrees ruthlessly destroy this integrity, forbidding parents, wives and children of our defenders to pray freely in their churches," added the UOC Chancellor.

As reported, the UOC Chancellor urged the faithful to intensify prayers during Petrov Lent.

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