UOC Chancellor: Where were activists when Lavra lay in ruins?
Metropolitan Anthony explained why officials remain indifferent to church seizures and the persecution of the Church.
Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich) of Boryspil and Brovary, Chancellor of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, has explained what he sees as officials’ complete indifference to the persecution of the Church and the desecration of seized holy sites, where inappropriate secular events are being held.
The hierarch noted that a person’s attitude toward the Church depends on their inner spiritual condition: what people see in the Church reflects how they view it. He stressed that the Church should not be expected to compromise its principles, embrace fashionable trends, cater to worldly interests, or tolerate sin. He added that there are plenty of examples today of misguided attitudes toward the Church of Christ.
As one such example, Metropolitan Anthony cited statements by Viktor Yelensky, head of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS), who has claimed that reports of religious persecution, church seizures, and the harassment of believers in Ukraine are untrue.
“When a person does not regard a church as a holy place, as the House of the Living God, they are indifferent to its seizure, desecration, looting, sacrilege, and changes in ‘ownership,’” the UOC Chancellor explained.
Metropolitan Anthony also noted that the new “owners” of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra are guided by principles far removed from the Gospel and do not treat the monastery as a sacred place in practice.
“If they consider the Lavra a holy site, why does its Refectory Church host all sorts of absurd gatherings and competitions? It would never occur to a believer to treat a sacred place this way – a place where the Liturgy, the central sacrament of Christian life, is celebrated. And where were these activists when the Lavra lay in ruins? Why was no one eager to restore and revive it back then, yet as soon as it was rebuilt, ‘owners’ suddenly appeared?” Metropolitan Anthony emphasized.
The UOC Chancellor said that modern officials have become adept at manipulating patriotic slogans and public sentiment to divide society and pursue personal gain.
The hierarch recalled that only the Church can unite society around Christ, offering people a way to rise above earthly anxieties, grief, turmoil, and fruitless suffering.
Earlier, the UOJ reported that a Ukrainian fashion brand had unveiled a clothing collection at the Lavra’s Refectory Church.
