Metropolitan Anthony criticizes DESS order on Boryspil Eparchy

Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanych). Photo: Metropolitan Anthony’s Facebook page

Metropolitan Anthony of Boryspil and Brovary, Chancellor of the UOC, addressed the faithful following DESS’s conclusion that the Boryspil Eparchy is affiliated with a foreign religious organization whose activities are banned in Ukraine. Metropolitan Anthony pointed to what he described as arbitrary actions and distorted facts in the agency’s findings.

The hierarch stressed that agency officials had not requested official documents from the eparchy’s leadership or sought clarification of its current position. Instead, he said, officials based their conclusions on materials published a decade ago without verifying whether they were still valid. “How can a government agency formulate an official position based on assumptions and in the absence of official documents?” the bishop asked.

“The findings of the review contain no facts indicating that the Boryspil Eparchy violated Ukrainian law,” Metropolitan Anthony stressed. “Nor is there any legally substantiated finding that the law on freedom of conscience was violated.”

“The mere fact that a government agency has issued an order does not mean that the conclusions it contains are beyond dispute,” the bishop said. “After all, even DESS itself acknowledges that its decision is the result of an administrative review, not a court ruling terminating the activities of a religious organization.” The hierarch also recalled that the activities of a religious organization can be terminated only by a court ruling.

Metropolitan Anthony drew the faithful’s attention to the fact that the authorities cannot ban the true Church of Christ. “The Church, as the mystical Body of Christ, does not derive its existence from a government institution. A person does not need an official’s permission to believe in God; nor does one need the authorization of a government agency to pray to Christ,” Metropolitan Anthony stressed.

“I call on the faithful children of the Boryspil Eparchy to make three prostrations every day, praying for the softening of the evil hearts of those who are hostile toward the Church,” the hierarch urged. “Unlawful decrees are eventually reassessed, officials pass into history, ideological trends disappear, but Christ remains.”

As the UOJ previously reported, the Zaporizhzhia Eparchy responded to DESS’s statement about alleged ties to the Russian Orthodox Church.

Read also