Met. Anthony: For 5 years power has cultivated lies and hatred against UOC
For 5 years, the authorities have slandered and assured Ukrainians that the UOC is non-patriotic, now there is a chance of Church-state partnership, said Met. Anthony.
On June 19, 2019, on the “Right to Faith” programme, Metropolitan Anthony of Borispol and Brovary, Chancellor of the UOC, shared his thoughts on how the church situation in Ukraine changed after the election.
According to the hierarch, the UOC has been subjected to unjust persecutions for the past five years.
“We have lived a difficult 5 years, when lies, hatred against our Church have been cultivated. And all this was given a certain state significance, as if the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, essentially non-patriotic, had lived inside the state. This is a slander against its own people, against its own citizens, because the UOC is the Church of the Ukrainian people. Our history started from the moment of the historical existence of our state,” he said.
In general, in his opinion, there is a hope that with the change of power, state intervention in the affairs of the Church will cease. However, according to him, local authorities often continue to behave in an unconstitutional way to the UOC believers, especially the cases of the “re-registration” of parishes are alarming.
“As for the new schisms in the schism itself, this confirms the correctness of the actions of our Church in the early 90s. Because the former Metropolitan Filaret was anathematized for his schismatic activities. We were assured for a long time that there were other motives, that he allegedly tried to solve the tasks of the “national Church”. But it turns out that it only goes about personal ambitions, which for him are above all. And the question is more profound: it's about the people he bred. They are used to living in a schism, they have no sense of its danger, and it means that these phenomena will take place in the future. Schism breeds only schism,” noted Metropolitan Anthony.
According to Vladyka Anthony, there is a chance to enter into normal partnership relations between the Church and the authorities: “After all, we are doing one great thing in relation to our people: the State is engaged in the material organization of society, and we, the Church, are engaged in its spiritual recovery. One cannot expect that if the material wealth of the citizens is provided, the society will be in order. Experience shows that there will be no peace and harmony.”
“Let us remember that the Prayer for enemies is unbearable for the devil that stands behind all the schisms and heresies,” he concluded.
As the UOJ reported, earlier Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich) said that Christianity is the lot of strong and brave people, and humility is valuable in the eyes of God and is His gift given to a man for a courageous heart.
