Shostatsky to UOC: If you are so righteous – do not cling to your churches

Shostatsky during a television broadcast. Photo: the Facebook page of the OCU’s Khmelnytskyi Eparchy

OCU Metropolitan Simeon (Shostatsky) told the Khmelnytskyi TV channel TV7plus that the UOC should pray rather than defend its churches during “transitions” into his structure.

“If you are so righteous, so pure and blameless, if you are fighting for the purity of your flock and the salvation of their souls – we know how one can pray. But what are you fighting for? For property,” Shostatsky declared.

According to him, at meetings on joining the OCU, not only those who regularly attend services may vote, but all residents of the locality where the church is situated.

“All those who live on the territory of a given locality (I am speaking especially about villages), who belong to Orthodoxy – all of them are members of that community. The church belongs not only to one particular group, but to them as well,” Shostatsky insisted. “Therefore, they have the same right as those who come every Sunday.”

The metropolitan said that those who come to church only once a year to have their Easter cakes blessed may tomorrow “change completely.”

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that, according to Shostatsky, the OCU is experiencing a real personnel shortage.

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