ROCOR(A) ACCUSES UKRAINIAN OFFICIALS OF COLLUSION WITH THE UPTsMP "FOR OPPRESSING OUR CHURCH"
Metropolitan of Odessa and Tauride Agafangel (Pashkovsky), who heads the part of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) that in 2007 refused to join the Moscow patriarchate and now is known as ROCOR(A), again reported the oppression of his religious organization by Ukrainian officials in the interests of, and with the involvement of clergy of the UPTsMP, Religiia v Ukraine reports, with reference to a statement of the hierarch published on 18 July.
"In Ukraine, representatives of the Moscow patriarchate continue to raise impediments to our church," Metropolitan Agafangel declares. "The latest such incident occurred in Volyn oblast, where in the village of Kraska the parish of the ROCOR in honor of the Holy Prophet and Forerunner John submitted documents three months ago for registration with the state provincial administration. The commissioner for religious affairs in the Volyn oblast, Vasily Anatolievich Gaiduk, a supporter of the Moscow patriarchate, using his official position, tried by all means to prevent this registration. Twice he returned the charter, forcing it to "correct" on the basis of far-fetched reasons. And now, when all conditions have been met and there is nothing more to complain about, he sent the list of the parish to a priest of the Moscow patriarchate, Oleg Sander, who ministers in this village, who went around to the homes of members of the parish, on the basis of the addresses given to him by Commissioner V.A. Gaiduk (like in the sadly remembered soviet times), and tried to persuade each of them to withdraw from membership in the ROCOR parish."
"The Moscow patriarchate, which depicts itself as being persecuted in Ukraine, continues the business of the soviet church. By means of slander and remnants of the pro-Moscow administrative resources, it tries to hinder the development of our church, just like it managed to do in the times of the U.S.S.R. It is a fact that the Moscow patriarchate continues to serve today as the "preserver of the communist day-before-yesterday" (in the designation by the priest Georgy Edelshtein). "Ukraine little needs this preserver," the hierarch thinks.
Earlier Metropolitan Agafangel accused a patron of the UPTsMP, a deputy from the city of Nikolaev, of beating up a ROCOR priest and the police, of covering up the incident. (tr. by PDS, posted 21 August 2018)
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