Bishop Pimen: We are patriots of our country but we are outlawed
Now in Ukraine we have a division into acceptable and unacceptable, while persecution of an entire part of society is viewed as a kind of “good” service to the state.
We are the patriots of our country even more than those who relentlessly declare this, believes bishop Pimen of Dubno, vicar of the Rovno Eparchy of the UOC.
“We are experiencing very difficult times when the Church is subject to persecution in a carefully disguised, hidden, but visible to all, way, when raider seizures of temples are committed, when we feel constant pressure on the Church, clergymen, even on those who express a desire to stay in the bosom of the Ukrainian Orthodox Churche,” His Grace Pimen said in an exclusive interview to the Lavra. Way of salvation channel. “It is so hard for the people, because we are the people of God, we are the people of our Church, our state, and we are the patriots of our country, maybe even more than those who hype it on every possible occasion. We are made outcasts on our own land, which we love and in which we live.”
The vicar recalled that seizures of temples and incitement of people to civil strife affected mostly the Rovno eparchy, with the explicit support of state agents.
“Everything is being disguised by “good” desires to create a single Local Ukrainian Church, without taking into account the fact that our canonical Ukrainian Church has already existed since 1992, being independent and fully self-governing. Our Church has more rights than the newly created church structure, but the facts are twisted, everything is served in the worst tones and is cynically balanced,” he added.
According to Vladyka, a person who aspires to peace will never allow society to be divided into acceptable and unacceptable but, “to my great regret, this is exactly what is happening now.”
“All this is acclaimed, even supported by state structures,” he noted. “A lot of raider seizures of our temples were backed if not by the heads of district administrations, then some of their representatives, deputies. The participation of state power was evident; this is all recorded on video. And all this is made to believe as a kind of service to their homeland."
However, according to the priest, a real service to the homeland would be reconciliation of people of different views, "rather than one-sided persecution of an entire part of society".
Bishop Pimen called on the UOC believers to respect the human dignity of every person, never show aggression to anyone and defend their rights exclusively in the legal field, since "a Christian is called to be a preacher of love, not of hatred".
“We have a commitment to God to preserve what belongs to us, but our Holy Ukrainian Orthodox Church throughout its history has never encroached on someone else’s, and we have the right to defend our own. There are legal laws, there is a legal framework in which we can work and defend what belongs to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” he said.
The vicar of the Rovno Eparchy of the UOC wished that peace would come to Ukrainian society as soon as possible, “the brother would give his brother a hand and there would never be divisions and clashes between those people who stand shoulder to shoulder and in whose veins flows the same blood”.
“We, Ukrainians, have an excellent legacy of being the winners in fighting for the Orthodox faith, the Cossack winners, who defended our state from many Turkish and other invaders. Let this legacy find response in the life of every person, in the vision of life of every person, so that we could enjoy shared fundamental values – faith in God, in our Holy Church and, of course, in our land, in our homeland and its people. Homeland is a collection of all people, and the linchpin of our Ukrainian statehood is that many people have managed to learn to live together. We need to overcome all those divisions and differences to become one entity. This is the most important thing that can be in our life,” summed up Bishop Pimen of Dubno.
