UOC-MP Spokesman Answers Question Why Priests of This Church Are Not on Maidan

Spokesperson of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) Archpriest Heorhiy Kovalenko was asked why the priests of the UOC-MP are not on the Maidan. Kovalenko wrote about this on his Facebook page.

In response to this question, the spokesperson wrote:

“First, our priests are there and it can be seen on Facebook, but they are there as citizens with their positions, not as a political instructors or party organizers. Our church does need PR from political activism.

“Secondly, I do not understand why we need tent churches on the Maidan. Are the no churches and monasteries in Kyiv, are they closed?

“The church did not bless the tent churches near the Parliament and will not bless tent churches on the Maidan. The church dissociated itself from ‘political Orthodoxy’ and always asks people not to use church symbolism and rhetoric in political processes.

“And thirdly, if the thoughts of the church are important for the leaders of the Maidan, we are always ready to voice them and we did this, by the way, even in the morning of that sad Saturday.”