Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich): those who fight with our Church – fight with Ukrainian nation

Those people who have launched campaign against the Church forgot that during this “fight” millions of regular Ukrainian believers have died. Using these slogans is a way to hatred, state destruction and fratricidal war. It was reported by the UOC Chancellor Metropolitan of Borispol and Brovary Anthony, reports Vecherniy Kiev.

“The question ‘who benefits from it?’ I will answer like that – enemies of Ukraine. The people who keep fighting against our Church are actually fighting against the people of our country”, emphasized His Eminence.

“The Church is not a political institution and cannot be exploited as a political tool. Therefore, one can say the political situation in the country has no impact upon the Church mission. Another thing is that a certain political situation can aggravate implementation of this mission, i.e. through the power pressure, direct confrontation and violence there can be created such conditions that it gets complicated to preach Jesus Christ”, he explained. 

Metropolitan Anthony underscored the “Ukrainian Orthodox Church has no conflict with anyone. We do not seize churches of another denomination; do not slander, making it a tool to malign whoever it might be”.  

He declared the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is fully independent and self-governing. “We have our Synod which takes decisions on its own about bishop ordinations, opening monasteries, dioceses, and others. Through the Moscow Patriarchate our Church enters into a dialogue with Ecumenical Orthodoxy”, said His Eminence. 

He underlined that an attempt to create One Local Church in Ukraine will exacerbate conflict in the ambience of the existing Local Churches. “Interference into a religious matter in Ukraine will only aggravate crisis in the society. It’s necessary to take note of the current inter-denominational conflict in Ukraine. All fullness of Ecumenical Orthodoxy deplored to a different extent aggressive activities of non-canonical organizations with regard to the UOC. Raiding of our churches for the last three years has pinned the attention not only of the world’s Local Churches but also of the European human rights activist organizations. As Ukraine is a secular and rule-of-law state, interference into church affairs is absolutely out of place”, concluded Metropolitan Anthony.    

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