UPTs CALLS PLANS TO TAKE AWAY NAME FROM CANONICAL CHURCH OF UKRAINE HOSTILE TAKEOVER
Interfax-Religiia, 29 October 2018
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church warned the government about attempts "to take over" from it its name on the grounds that it is in canonical unity with the Moscow patriarchate.
"According to the laws of our country, it is forbidden to duplicate a legal name or to change it. . . . It is impossible to change by force the name of our church. Whatever laws may be adopted, they will not have legal force because any appellate court, not to speak of the European court, will overturn such a decision. Therefore these attempts to take our name from us is purely a hostile takeover," the vice-chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the UPTs, Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich, said.
This is the way the representative of the canonical church responded to a suggestion, published yesterday, by a spokesman of the uncanonical Kiev patriarchate to rename the UPTs as "Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine."
"We all know what such a hostile takeover is," Father Nikolai recalled in this regard, who was quoted by the Information and Enlightenment Department of the UPTs. "This is, first, the seizure of property, second, the change of name, and third, change of leadership. What Filaret and all those around him want to do, they tried to do in 1992."
The priest noted that it was a "scam of Filaret and the government of the time, when they held the so-called 'unification council' and liquidated the charter of the UAPTs, which already existed at that time, and they created the 'UPTs of the Kiev Patriarchate,'"
"If they could change the name to 'Ukrainian Orthodox Church' they would have done it back then. But they could not do this for the same reason, I repeat, that it is forbidden to duplicate names, because there was the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, it now is, and it will be in the future. What they now say they want to do is an old scheme. It will again be the scam by Filaret with the support of the current political authorities, if it comes to that," the representative of the UPTs emphasized. (tr. by PDS, posted 29 October 2018)
RPTs CALLS IDEA OF RENAMING UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH THE DREAMS OF FILARET DENISENKO
Interfax-Religiia, 29 October 2018
The Moscow patriarchate pointed out to those who wish to take away the name from the canonical church of Ukraine that this clearly contradicts declarations about the European choice of this country.
"To force believers by violence to rename their religious organization? It is obvious that such actions go counter to the fundamental norms protecting human rights. It is strange how such intentions and statements are combined with declarations about the supposed European choice by Ukraine that representatives of the current Ukrainian governmental leadership often speak about," the vice-chairman of the synod's Department of External Church Relations, Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, said in an interview, which was published Monday in Rossiiskaia Gazeta.
The idea to rename the UPTs as the "Russian Church in Ukraine" was voiced recently by representatives of the uncanonical Kiev patriarchate. Meanwhile, Father Nikolai call it "the dreams of Mr. Denisenko" (Filaret, leader of the KP).
The representative of the Moscow patriarchate explained that meetings of clergy that are now being held in dioceses of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church are expressing by an overwhelming majority of votes their desire, as before, to be a part of the canonical UPTs and they are supporting its primate, Metropolitan Onufrey, and the course he chose, and at the same time they do not wish to enter into canonical relations with representatives of Constantinople.
"They also do not wish to go under the leadership of the schismatics who were 'rehabilitated' by Constantinople, but on the contrary they wish to be a part of the Moscow patriarchate in the future," the representative of the synodal department noted. (tr. by PDS, posted 29 October 2018)
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