UPTs REPORTS PRESSURE ON ITS BISHOPS TO FORCE PARTICIPATION IN UNIFICATION COUNCIL
Interfax-Religiia, 20 November 2018
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is sounding an alarm regarding pressure that is being exerted on its bishops with a goal of forcing them to participate in the so-called unification council for creating a church independent from Moscow.
"As of the present, actions on the part of various forces are being committed with a goal of pressure on bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Evidence of this is a number of pickets and illegal actions at diocesan administration buildings and residences of UPTs bishops. We also see that various kinds of information are being systematically published about UPTs bishops, about their condition and places of residence and travels, with a goal of attracting attention to their activity and an attempt to discredit them. In addition, UPTs bishops are being summoned for discussions in the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU). In view of the systematic nature, simultaneity, and massive character, these actions are aimed at bishops with a goal of pressuring and compelling them to participate in the so-called 'unification council,'" the head of the UPTs legal department, Archpriest Alexander Bakhov, declared on Tuesday.
The priest, who quoted the Department of Information and Enlightenment of the UPTs, noted that these provocations are a direct violation of the constitutional rights of Ukrainian citizens.
"In developing this project of a 'united local Ukrainian church,' the government ensures the right to freedom of conscience of a certain portion of citizens of Ukraine. But at the same time, the government is violating the rights of another portion of Ukraine who belong to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church," the UPTs representative emphasized.
The chairman of the legal department also pointed out that picketing by supporters of autocephaly that have been conducted in recent days at various diocesan administration buildings have a "pronounced artificial and centralized character." For example, when a picket was conducted near the residence of Archbishop of Boyarka Feodosy, after the police were called supporters of the tomos "immediately," without waiting for law enforcement to arrive, left. "It seems that they were informed," the lawyer said.
He called the pressure on bishops of the canonical church "expected, to some extent," since the UPTs episcopate has refused to support the actions of the patriarchate of Constantinople and authorities of Ukraine for creating a "United Local Church" of this country. (tr. by PDS, posted 21 November 2018)
UPTs METROPOLITAN CALLS POROSHENKO "PERSECUTOR OF THE CHURCH"
Metropolitan of Zaporozhe and Melitopol Luka called Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko a "modern persecutor of the church." The hierarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church announced this in a video devoted to an interrogation at the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU).
Metropolitan Luka described how he was summoned to the SBU during a picket near the walls of the diocese in which supporters of granting autocephaly to Ukraine were shouting insulting slogans against the church.
"When our church demonstrated unity, 82
bishops clearly
declared their position that they favor the current status of
the UPTs, headed
by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufrey, when we, as we say,
refused to go to the
building that bears the name of the persecutor of the church
(previously the
Ukraine House about which he is talking was the Lenin Museum—ed.
note) for a
meeting with the modern persecutor of the church. This speaks of
only one thing—that
people, those who were arranging this, at whose command all this
was arranged, are
infected with terrible sin," Metropolitan Luka declared. . . .
(tr. by
PDS, posted 21 November 2018)
BUREAUCRATS ENCOURAGE NEZHIN DIOCESE TO TRANSFER TO "UNITED CHURCH"
Local bureaucrats of the city of Nezhin of Chernigov oblast have tried to force clergy of the Nezhin diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to transfer into the uncanonical church, which intends to conduct a "unification council" that is needed for receiving a tomos. This incident was announced on Wednesday by the secretary of the Nezhin diocese, Valery Dashko. . . .
"On Monday, about ten persons arrived at our Nezhin diocesan administration building. They called themselves representatives of the public, but the majority of them occupy government offices. . . . They surrounded employees of our diocesan administration with shouts and accused them of various sins, absolutely unfounded accusations. They wanted to force our parishioners to transfer into the so-called united church, which still does not exist, and it is unclear whether it will exist at all," Dashko declared on a broadcast of TV channel 112 Ukraina.
He said the bureaucrats accused parishioners and clergy of lack of patriotism and also of support for the "fratricidal war." Dashko said that the priests did not call the police. . . . (tr. by PDS, posted 21 November 2018)
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