Most cynical scheme for raiding UOC churches revealed online
According to the UOC deacon, the actions of OCU representatives are premeditated and designed to provoke conflict.
UOC Deacon Andrii Hlushchenko described in a Facebook post what he called a new provocation tactic increasingly used by OCU “priests.”
“OCU clerics make arrangements with the relatives to conduct the funeral service for a fallen Ukrainian serviceman, but then bring his body not to their own church but to a nearby UOC church,” he wrote.
According to the deacon, OCU “priests” demand that the church be opened so they can conduct the funeral service, while at the same time denying UOC priests the right to conduct the service themselves: “He supposedly has no moral right, as a ‘Moscow priest,’ to conduct the funeral of a Ukrainian serviceman.”
Hlushchenko stressed that such actions are planned in advance and intended as a provocation. “Despite knowing that they have no prior agreement or permission, OCU ‘priests’ demand that the rector make his church available to them so that they can conduct the service themselves.”
UOC priests usually refuse, which, Hlushchenko noted, is fully consistent with Church canons:
1. “The UOC and OCU are not in Eucharistic communion and do not concelebrate.”
2. “The UOC does not officially recognize OCU ordinations.”
3. “UOC churches are not public facilities that anyone may use as they please.”
4. “Services in a church may be conducted only by the parish community under the leadership of its own priest.”
Nevertheless, OCU “priests” continue to bring the bodies of fallen servicemen to UOC churches, “knowing full well that many UOC priests will not agree to this.” They then create public scandals, accusing UOC rectors of “being unpatriotic, betraying Ukraine, and secretly working for Moscow.”
“The purpose of such actions by OCU ‘priests’ is not to pray for the deceased or conduct a funeral service, but to stage a provocation, create a high-profile scandal, and provoke a public confrontation in order to discredit the local UOC priest,” the deacon said.
Hlushchenko claimed that such incidents are then used to put pressure on religious communities and as part of efforts to transfer churches from the UOC to the OCU.
Even when a UOC priest agrees to allow the service, he said, the provocations do not end. “For example, OCU cleric Roman Hryshchuk sometimes creates major scandals if a UOC priest does not open the Royal Doors in his church. Strictly speaking, the rubrics do not call for the Royal Doors to be opened during a funeral service, although this is customary in some churches.”
Hlushchenko concluded by citing an example from a recent video: “Without making any prior arrangements, OCU ‘priests’ brought the body of a fallen serviceman to a UOC church. The rector refused to open the church for them. The OCU clerics conducted the funeral service outside the church fence, deliberately turning the incident into a high-profile scandal.”
As the UOJ previously reported, the OCU recently honored the mayor of Cherkasy again for assisting in the seizure of a UOC cathedral.
