UOC bishops speak out against renaming the Ukrainian Orthodox Church

Заседание Собора епископов УПЦ в Киево-Печерской лавре

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church will protect its rights by all legal means, says the official statement of the Bishops’ Council of the UOC, which took place at the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra on November 13.

“The Bishops’ Council opposes any attempts to change the name of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is already declared by the top officials of the state, and other manifestations of discrimination against believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church at the legislative level,” reads the document published by the UOC Information and Education Department.

The hierarchs emphasize that if the relevant bills are adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will protect its rights by all legal means envisaged by the “Fundamentals of the Social Concept of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church”, the legislation of Ukraine and the European Convention on Human Rights.

“The Bishops' Council calls upon all children of the UOC to intensify prayers, maintain unity among themselves and remain faithful to the Holy Church of Christ, and not be afraid of possible trials, remembering the words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ: “Take heart, for I have overcome the world ”(John 16:33),” the document says.

Earlier, Petro Poroshenko has said that after the creation of the Single Local Church, the UOC would be named the “Russian Orthodox Church”. Later he said that the representatives of the "Russian Orthodox Church" had nothing to do in Ukraine and recommended them to go "home to Russia".

As the UOJ reported, on November 13, 2018, Petro Poroshenko refused to come to the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra to meet the bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

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