UGCC Criticized Epifaniy's Awarding of Uniate Officials
Hieromonk Justin Boyko of the Lviv Archeparchy called the presentation of church awards to officials a profanation and cited as an example a PCU order given to a Greek Catholic official.
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) has criticized the practice of church representatives from other confessions awarding their own faithful. This is stated in a post by Hieromonk Justin Boyko on Facebook.
Studite Hieromonk Justin Boyko of the Lviv Archeparchy of the UGCC, in a post titled "When an Award Ceases to Be an Award," wrote that particular attention should be given to the practice whereby "hierarchs of one Church award people belonging to another ecclesial community."
"The question arises: should it not remain standard practice that a person is recognized first and foremost by his own Church, which knows his service best? And inter-church awards should be reserved for truly exceptional cases," wrote Boyko.
The author illustrated the post with a photograph showing Epifaniy Dumenko presenting an order to the head of the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional State Administration Svitlana Onyshchuk, whose husband is a priest of the UGCC. This sparked a wave of criticism in the comments: some readers accused the author of provocation and generating "hype" rather than theological reflection, and also called the criticism of another Church's leadership inappropriate.
As the UOJ reported,
blogger Koshkina, who was previously fined for spreading falsehoods about the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), stated that the PCU order serves as a "talisman" for her. Epifaniy Dumenko's practice of presenting church awards to secular figures and public activists has previously sparked debate among believers.
