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Notorious Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate wrote the open letter to President and Prime-Minister

24.07.2017, 14:44
Notorious Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate wrote the  open letter to President and Prime-Minister - фото 1

Metropolitan Pavel (Lebed) of Vyshgorod and Chernobyl, governor of the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra published an open letter to Ukraine’s President Poroshenko and Prime Minister of Ukraine Groisman, in which he listed all the services of the UOC (MP) “to the Motherland, and also explained what is the reason of condemnation of the UOC-MP today.

 

“We, the hierarchy and the brethren of the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, cannot but share concerns of all faithful of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church over the events of recent years, which have developed around the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra – a famous monastery, a spiritual center of the Holy ... Rus and our Church as a whole ... Attempts by some mass media and radical politicians to raise their ratings by defaming Lavrov, accusations of illegal construction against the monastery administrators and leadership of the Kyiv-Pechersk Reserve that also makes efforts to revive the Lavra, as an asset not only of the Ukrainian people, but of all mankind, evokes a fair indignation,” Metropolitan Pavel wrote.

 

He calls “groundless” the charges brought against the Lavra of anti-state activities, cooperation with terrorists and foreign intelligence agencies: "Unfortunately, custom-made TV programs and publications are accompanied by slanderous and unproven allegations of the Lavra in anti-state activities, cooperation with terrorists and foreign intelligence agencies and open threats to seize the monastery. These illegal actions, which stir up interethnic and inter-confessional hostility, force us to submit relevant statements to law-enforcement agencies.”

 

Metropolitan criticizes the Ukrainian MPs: "Among politicians there are those who speculate on the theme of spirituality, remaining atheists or forgetting in which Church they received the Holy Baptism. The attempts to propose, through the Parliament of Ukraine, the bills against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that blunder not only the Constitution of Ukraine, but also the norms of international law, are disguised with talks about spirituality.”

 

In his letter Metropolitan criticized changes in the Tax Code of Ukraine, calling them ungrounded: “We cannot ignore also the problem faced by religious organizations that are not only a part of our Church but also by other faiths. As a result of the introduction in Ukraine of unjustified tax code provisions stipulating that the criteria for non-profit organizations should be introduced to the constituent documents of nonprofit organizations, have obliged 52 thousand non-profit organizations, including 35 thousand religious organizations to undergo re-registration for making the appropriate amendments to the constituent documents. It is not clear what should be done to make changes to the constituent documents to those non-profit organizations that have already been registered as non-profitable ones and whose activities meet the criteria set forth in the Tax Code of Ukraine. The consequence of such short-sighted changes in the Tax Code is a benefit to notaries and other business registration entities, but has created problems for thousands of religious organizations, whose statutes are not considered by the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine and local administrations in violation of the terms, both because of the employees overload and for political reasons.”

 

“We appeal to you, Mr. President and Mr. Prime Minister of Ukraine with a request to end the incitement of ethnic and religious hatred in our troubled country,” with these words ends an open letter of the Metropolitan of UOC (MP).