Statement to the media by Patriarch of Kyiv and all Rus-Ukraine Filaret.

On the eve of the holiday of The Nativity of Christ, one would not wish to talk about unpleasant events, however, the recent developments and increasing pressure on the KyivPatriarchate requires the following statement.

With utmost certainty I declare that the Moscow Patriarchate is trying to implement an ambitious plan in Ukraine for the collapse and destruction of the Kyiv Patriarchate.

The plan was created in Moscow by the Patriarch of Moscow Kirill and his subordinates for implementation in Ukraine. The main participants with a large role in this plan are the organsof the local government in Ukraine.

Implementation of this plan started this summer in preparation for the visit of Patriarch Kirill to Ukraine.

During the spring of this year the Patriarch’s assistant, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfyeyev) visited several regions of Ukraine, solely for the purpose of persuading clergy to changetheir jurisdiction and become a part of the Moscow Patriarchate. By his own admission, Metropolitan Hilarion tried to persuade the Metropolitan of Lviv Andrew, to betray the Kyiv Patriarchate, but the plan failed. Throughout last summer the Kyiv Patriarchate was receiving initial reports that the district level and local government officials aswell as the community sponsors were pressuring parish priests to change their allegiance to the Moscow Patriarchate. In the past months, in some dioceses up to 70% of the clergywere subjected to such "interviews”. Sadly, all of these events involvedrepresentatives of the local authorities, simultaneity and coordination of all these actions indicate that they have the support and directives from their governmental superiors in theCapital city of Kyiv. In Donetsk, the regional administration forced the village council of Kamenka, Telmanovo district to allocate an ancient temple of the Ascension of our Lord tothe newly established parish of the Moscow Patriarchate. In October, the provincial government of the Kyiv region secretly, quietly, but promptly, with falsified changes to theChurch Constitution, re-registered three parishes of the Kyiv Patriarchate in the city Makarov and in the villages of Yasnogorodka and Makovyshe of the Makarov district as parishes of the Moscow Patriarchate. The members of these parishes only learned on December 26, 2010 that their parisheswere already registered for two months as part of the Moscow Patriarchate. As was suspected, at least three of the signatures on the Makarov protocol were falsified, these people didnot know anything about the document and this makes the document invalid. In the village of Yasnogorodka neither the Parish Priest nor the ParishBoard knew anything about the "meeting" or that they had been covertly transferred to the Moscow Patriarchate. At the same time in the village of Rizhky the Parish Constitution wasaltered for registration under the Moscow Patriarchate. Only the timely detection and report by the parishioners of the fraud, imposed by the previous pastor, stopped theregistration process, the entire parish unanimously was opposed to the change of jurisdiction and subjugation to the Moscow Patriarchate. Today, the former priest and agroup of non-parishioners are threatening parishioners and the newly appointed priest via telephone, for their stance and allegiance to their Church, the Kyiv Patriarchate.

Also, there is the widely known situation with the capital's (Kyiv) cemeteries. In all these cases we see that the authorities quickly, smoothly andefficiently operate in favor of the interests of the Moscow Patriarchate, but when it comes to protecting the interests of the Kyiv Patriarchate, the government officials use words like"study, review, etc”. – decisions are delayed in search of excuses and negative answers.

Today, we cannot predict when and where the next conflict may occur. But if Moscow continues to implement their plan - conflicts will arise throughout Ukraine in the future.

The administration and tax levies will continue to put pressure on benefactors that contribute to or favor parishes of the Kyiv Patriarchate.

They will seek unstable, cowardly people and traitors among the clergy of the Kyiv Patriarchate, offer them money and other assistance and will act as the synedrion wassearching for traitors among the disciples of Christ in order to take Him secretly. Patriarch Kirill, after the visit to the inauguration of President ViktorYanukovych said that: "the trend for schism is passing-by, the schismatics will return to the canonical Church”. Pro-Moscow forces were able to find in the Kyiv Patriarchate only a fewtraitors. In preparation for the summer visit of Patriarch Kirill the Moscow Patriarchate needs to gather as much evidence in support of Kirill’s words - for thispurpose the entire Moscow Church puts political and religious pressure and influence on the people of Ukraine and the Ukrainian authorities.

I amconvinced - further implementation of the Moscow plan threatens Ukrainian society with a strong perturbation. Our wish is for peace and harmony for the Ukrainian people. But stillafter all of our appeals to the government we have not heard anything except indirect assurances about "equal treatment of all churches," which in practice has given full support to theMoscow Patriarchate and has put undue pressure on the Kyiv Patriarchate. Previously, Moscow was instrumental in an attempt to destroy the Kyiv Patriarchate.

The culmination of this was the event on "bloody Tuesday" July 18, 1995 – participants in the funeral procession with the body of the deceased Patriarch Volodymyr (Romaniuk) werebeaten by police in St. Sofia Square. Through all of these trials our Church has not only passed the test but has grown stronger. Stronger, because all the patriotic forces rallied aroundour Church. We beseech the current governmental administration to not wait for another "Bloody tuesday" in order to realize the fallibility of their actions againstthe Kyiv Patriarchate as done by the previous government administrations. We are not afraid of new persecutions of the Kyiv Patriarchate - the weakand unfaithful might have fallen, but during the hardship, the spirit of faith and the power of true sons and daughters of the Church only grow stronger. But foremost, wedo not want to see the destruction of our country by plans imposed from outside of our country. I urge all parishioners to be vigilant – and do not allow without yourparticipation and knowledge any amendments to the constitution of your parishes, which may subjugate your parish to the Moscow Patriarchate. 

 I urge theinternational societies and communities to pay attention to the violation of human rights of believers of the Kyiv Patriarchate and exerted pressures on our Church. Your voice must beheard in defense of the truth! I urge journalists to monitor events in the religious life of Ukraine and report them honestly and objectively.

I urge the government and personally the Head of State – it is about time to start a real and fruitful dialogue. Otherwise Ukraine risks return to sectarian power struggle ofthe early 90's.

I hope that during New Year of 2011 there shall be changes for the better.

I call on the Ukrainian people the blessing of God!

Filaret, Patriarch of Kyiv and all Rus-Ukraine