DECR UOC head: OCU cynically uses war by seizing our churches

The head of the DECR UOC, Metropolitan Meletiy (Yegorenko) of Chernivtsi and Bukovyna said in an interview with news-politics.com that the OCU is cynically using the war by seizing the churches of the UOC.

“This denomination (OCU – Ed.) simply cynically uses the situation that is tragic for our people and continues to seize our parishes by force in those regions of the country where there are no active military activities. At a time when we all need unity among people, when the enemy is in the east and the south of the country, representatives of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine are working to split our people inside the country, forcibly taking away parishes from us, raising slander against our Ukrainian Orthodox Church, against our parishioners who defend their country, against Ukrainians who are like themselves,” said Metropolitan Meletiy.

According to the UOC hierarch,the behavior of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is the trouble for our people. No other denomination in the country (no Catholics, no Greek Catholics, no Protestants) behaves in the way.

“The only large-scale interfaith conflict in the country is generated by representatives of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and people sympathetic to them in concrete places. Such ideology of them and their behavior harm the security of our country,” he added.

“Representatives of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine have been deliberately trying for many years and even now to label us a Church that is alien to Ukraine, deliberately calling us the "Russian Church in Ukraine". This is despite the fact that we have always been, are and will be the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which consists of ethnic Ukrainians and citizens of Ukraine. This is a very dangerous semantic narrative that has already brought a lot of trouble to our country,” said Metropolitan Meletiy.

The head of the DECR added that it is the UOC that is the historical and traditional Church for Ukraine, in contrast to the newly created 4 years ago based on the schismatic groups of the OCU that broke away from the UOC.

"This probably explains their aggressive behavior towards our Church, from which they have broken away and whose name and history they want to deceive,” added the UOC hierarch.

Metropolitan Meletiy noted that during the months of the war the central Ukrainian government saw the colossal humanitarian potential of the Church, but at the regional level there are still many abuses and facts of government interference in church life.

It seems to me that the state understands the important role of the Church. During these months of the war, the state saw the colossal moral and humanitarian potential of the Church, which supported its people in defense of the country. Although at the regional level, in many regions of our country, there are many improper uses and facts of government's interference in the church life, and often even direct illegal actions. I hope that the current government will draw conclusions from the mistakes of the religious policy of the state power connected to the previous president of Ukraine and will no longer try to parasitize on religious themes,” Metropolitan Meletiy resumed.

As reported, in Zazymie the "priest" of the OCU, together with the territorial defense forced, was trying to seize the UOC temple.

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