Dumenko: Russian shelling only underscores the “canonical” status of the OCU

Epifaniy Dumenko. Photo: OCU

The head of the OCU, Serhiy Dumenko, published reflections on Facebook in which he contrasted Russia’s shelling – and the Russian Church’s support for the war – with the stance of his own structure, whose “canonical authority,” he said, has been “recognized, attested, and repeatedly confirmed by the Mother Church.”

According to Serhiy Petrovych, it is “hard for me to imagine what other arguments and proofs are needed by those who are still blinded and believe the propaganda of the Russian patriarchate in Ukraine.” Whether he meant the UOC or the Russian Church by these words, the OCU leader did not specify. He went on to ask how many more crimes, under the slogans of “protection” and the “Russian world,” the Kremlin tyrant must generate before such “blinded” people come to their senses and finally “free themselves from spiritual bonds, from this ruinous yoke.”

As an alternative for these “blinded” people, Dumenko proposes his own religious organization: “The Autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church, as the canonically established Local Church of our people, serves God, bears witness to the truth, unites Orthodox believers for the multiplication of good works here on earth, and for salvation in eternity.”

“Our Church opposes divisions by seeking accord, peace, and unity – seeking what will truly be for the good of Ukraine,” Serhiy Petrovych assured, without explaining how this squares with deception and violence during the large-scale seizures of UOC churches. In his words, the OCU supports Ukrainians “as it did during the revolutions on the Maidan.”

In closing, he again assured that the hearts of OCU members are “open to unity – around truth, peace, and good.”

Earlier, the UOJ reported that Dumenko assured the German ambassador that there is no persecution of the UOC.

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