UOC spokesperson: Thanks to centrist position, our Church unites country

Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich. Photo: UOJ

The Deputy Head of the Department for External Church Relations of the UOC, Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich, in the "Right to Faith" programme on the "1Kozak" YouTube channel said that thanks to its centrist position, the UOC unites, consolidates and keeps Ukraine from disintegration.

“There are both pro-Western and pro-Eastern sentiments in the UOC, but they are not characteristic of the majority of believers. Centrism has existed in our Church at all times, and we will continue to talk about this because this is the nature of the Church. Church translated from Greek means "gathering of people", it is a whole, in contrast to the word "party", which means "part". The sacred nature of the Church is such that in Christ ‘there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all’ (Col. 3:11)," Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich recalled the words of the Apostle Paul.

According to him, unlike the OCU and the UGCC, whose ideology is pro-Western and pro-nationalist, the UOC advocate universalism and integrity.

“Either we will now turn into a purely national country or internal universalism will mature in Ukraine, for which we stand. We are for centrism around Kyiv. We should not look at either Moscow, Washington, or Brussels, we should look at Kyiv, live our own interests, not think how other countries will look at us, trying to rule from one side or the other,” the UOC spokesperson added.

“The task of the Church is to unite people and this is what the UOC is doing, therefore, statesmen should appreciate this and not contribute to the continuation of the separation processes,” he said.

As reported, UOC parishioners are ready to take to the streets en masse to protect the Church, according to the UOC spokesperson.

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