OCU backs government moves against UOC

Build a competing body. Attack the original body. Kill it and scrape out the insides to feed the new body.

The most uncomfortable parts of a nature documentary done in ecclesial form.

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(OCU) [Machine Translated] - Statement of the Holy Synod

Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Orthodox Church of Ukraine)

February 2, 2023

Regarding the need to legally limit the intervention of the aggressor country in the religious life of Ukraine

The aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine and the occupation of part of the territory of our state have been going on for almost nine years. The ideological basis for this aggression is the theory of the "Russian peace", which denies the unique identity of the Ukrainian nation, denies the right of the Ukrainian people to their own statehood and the Local Orthodox Church. Inspired by the ideology of the "Russian peace", the troops of the aggressor country commit mass terror and acts of genocide in the occupied territories and against the civilian population throughout Ukraine.

Numerous indisputable facts testify to the decisive, conscious and active participation of the leadership, clergy and many supporters of the Moscow Patriarchate (Russian Orthodox Church) in supporting and spreading the ideology of the "Russian world", which contains elements of heretical ethnophiletism. Personally, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church Kyryll Gundyaev gives a public blessing to the Russian political and military leadership to continue the aggressive war against Ukraine.

It is a widely known and indisputable fact that the Moscow Patriarchate, as the governing center of the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as its structural subdivisions, are under the decisive influence of the political leadership of the Russian Federation and the Russian special services. Other religious associations with their headquarters in the Russian Federation are also under similar influence to a greater or lesser extent. In the conditions of the war against Ukraine, this influence is used as a tool of hybrid aggression against our country, to justify collaboration with the occupiers on the captured Ukrainian lands, to incline Ukrainian citizens to treason against the Motherland and to act in the interests of the aggressor.

In this regard, the protection of the security of Ukraine, the protection of citizens of Ukraine and religious organizations from their use by an aggressor for criminal purposes is a fully justified goal, for the achievement of which it is necessary to introduce restrictions on the influence of Russian religious centers, and through them - on the political and military leadership and special services aggressor countries on religious organizations in Ukraine.

Therefore, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine supports the need to introduce a legislative ban on subordination (affiliation) of religious organizations in Ukraine to religious associations in the aggressor country - the Russian Federation. Such a ban does not concern freedom of religion and belief, but only administrative and legal issues. In conditions where the threat from the aggressor country's use of pseudo-religious motivation and the administrative influence of Russian religious centers on religious organizations in Ukraine is quite real and poses a significant danger to the rights and freedoms of all citizens of Ukraine, to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our state, the establishment of legislative restrictions on the subordination of religious organizations in Ukraine to the Russian religious association is a democratic and necessary reaction to aggression.

If the religious association, which continues to bear the name "Ukrainian Orthodox Church" contrary to the law, is really independent from the Russian Orthodox Church, as its spokesmen have been saying for the last time, such a legislative norm will not affect its position in any way, but on the contrary, it will protect this association from criminal Russian interference. However, as established by the religious examination, the religious association "UPC" actually remains a part of the Russian Orthodox Church. Its leadership, in concert with the aggressor country, spreads slander against Ukraine regarding alleged "persecutions", while at the same time almost completely ignoring numerous and systematic real facts of violation of the right to freedom of conscience, as well as other human rights and freedoms, in the Ukrainian territories occupied by the Russian Federation.

Taking into account all the above, the Holy Synod calls on the Ukrainian state to continue its work aimed at protecting national security in the religious sphere, and the international community to take an understanding and adequate approach to the measures taken by Ukraine in its resistance to Russian hybrid aggression.

On behalf of the Holy Synod -

Epiphanius

Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine,

Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine