ROC responds to Poroshenko’s statement that it has nothing to do in Ukraine
The head of state was reminded that the overwhelming majority of Ukrainian citizens are UOC parishioners and there are no “representatives of the ROC” in Ukraine.
The multimillion Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which Poroshenko wants to oust from the country, almost completely consists of Ukrainian citizens, the Moscow Patriarchate’s spokesman comments on the statement of the Ukrainian President for RIA Novosti. The President suggested that the “representatives of the Russian Church” return “home” since they have “nothing to do” in Ukraine.
The Secretary of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations Protopriest Igor Yakimchuk stressed that the overwhelming majority of the Ukrainian people support the canonical Church and its Primate and added that there is no such Orthodox organization as the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
He called the idea of the authorities to create the Single Local Church "gross and lawless violence against the conscience and religious beliefs of the majority of Ukrainians" and declared that "the court of history will give a correct assessment of this adventurist project".
On November 7, 2018, Petro Poroshenko addressed the “representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine” and recommended them to go “home”.
