Korchynskyi calls on Culture Ministry to “decolonize” UOC church near Lavra

Dmytro Korchynskyi. Photo: Korchynskyi’s Facebook page

Dmytro Korchynskyi has appealed to the Ministry of Culture and the Institute of National Remembrance, demanding the removal of the UOC from the church dedicated to St. Sergius of Radonezh. On his Facebook page, the radical described the shrine as an “island of the Russian world” that has been ignored in the course of decolonization.

Korchynskyi bluntly asked officials why secular institutions are subject to decolonization while communities of the canonical Church are not.

In his view, the authorities should turn their attention to church buildings that have, as he put it, “latched onto state institutions.”

In the same post, the nationalist launched a scathing attack on the veneration of the saints whose images are found in the church. He resorted to historical distortion, portraying St. Sergius of Radonezh as a supporter of “Horde rule.”

He called St. Seraphim of Sarov a “manufactured cult,” allegedly created in the nineteenth century for propaganda purposes. According to him, the veneration of the saint was supposedly imposed in order to strengthen the Church’s influence.

The radical did not spare other saints either. In his words, St. John of Kronstadt was “something like today’s Girkin,” while St. John of Shanghai was merely a native of Ukraine who “decided to be a good Russian.”

Earlier, the UOJ reported that participants at a right-wing conference had raised concerns about blocking UOJ.

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