Historical paths of the UOC (MP) and the ROC are to part: believers from Volyn send a letter to Metropolitan Onufriy
St Demetrius of Thessaloniki Orthodox church community of Vyshneve Village in Volyn, wrote an open letter to Primate of the UOC (MP) Onufriy (Berezovsky). Believers express dissatisfaction with the attitude of their church leadership towards recent political developments in the country.
They call hierarchy of the UOC (MP) to abandon the practice of remembering Patriarch Kirill during worship and take a course on autocephaly of the UOC (MP). Parishioners of St Demetrius church also believe that the church should anathematize Vladimir Putin as he has unleashed a war against Ukraine
“The thing that is often called fratricidal confrontation here should be called war, and not a civil one. Participation of political leadership, intelligence services and even regular troops of Russia in the war is undeniable to anyone who wants to see and understand. Although the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has consistently advocated the idea of wholeness and indivisibility of Ukraine, the Ukrainians have not heard a strong official condemnation by the Church of the occupation of the Crimea and attempts exclusion of other regions of Ukraine,” goes the letter.
Authors remembered to Metropolitan Onufriy his appeal to Putin in which the hierarch called the President of the Russian Federation an ‘Orthodox Christian’.
“It was an unjustified exaggeration. Mr. Putin's should be anathematized instead as the culprit and the person responsible for the current war and for crimes against humanity”, they said.
“As for Patriarch Kirill, to say he did nothing to prevent war or to stop it – is to say nothing. His hands are stained with blood not only of Ukrainians, but also of the citizens of the Russian Federation”, added parishioners and noticed that there was now a need to abandon the practice of remembrance of his name during worship as required by the thousands of communities of the UOC (MP).
“We do not remember him during the liturgy, as many other parishes do. Thousands of congregations of the UOC do not want to hear the name of the Patriarch during church services, but superiors are hesitant to stop his remembrance, keeping the ‘tradition of the elders’ in spite of remorse and common sense.”
“Along with millions of Ukrainian Orthodox we believe that God himself brings us to the point where Abraham and Lot’s path diverged at some point – not to terminate their relationship, but to preserve them, for each of them to realize one’s own vocation. The historical path of the UOC and the ROC have to finally diverge so that each of the churches followed its vocation in the world successfully without stumbling on the rocks of identity,” said the believers of St Demetrius church of Vyshneve village in Volyn in a letter to Metropolitan Onufriy.
