UOC believer to Zelenskyy: Do you seriously think we are all collaborators?

Daryna Holovan, a parishioner of the UOC, appealed to Volodymyr Zelenskyy to stop the infringement of the believers’ rights. The video of the appeal was posted by Viktoriya Kokhanovska in her Telegram channel.

"Mr. President, since the beginning of the war, you have been doing everything right, but now you see the enemy in the wrong place! This is not the Ukrainian Orthodox Church! Our Church is subordinated only to His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry, and he obeys only to the Lord and no one else. In the presidential elections, you promised Ukrainians full democracy in the country, you said that we were going to Europe. But now we see that your words run counter to your actions. Do not destroy our faith, because you have no right to do so,” Daryna said.

“If you have some weighty arguments against the representatives of the UOC, then work with specific people, do not tar everyone with the same brush. Do you want to say that there are spies and collaborators in every church in Ukraine? Even me? Who has been going to church since I was a baby? Am I a spy? Are my parents and grandparents spies too?” the parishioner questions the head of state.

Daryna stressed that according to the Constitution, everyone has the right to religion, and the UOC is separated from the state.

“I understand that you are the president and rule the country, but you cannot rule the Church, only the Lord can rule the Church. Please, if you have the fear of God, do not go against God, do not go against the UOC. History is cyclical and it repeats itself, and unfortunately, you have triggered this mechanism. In the 1930s, when priests were killed and churches were closed, it all ended in a disastrous war. Do you want that?" asks the believer of the UOC.

Daryna Holovan also stated that Ukrainian soldiers go into battle in the name of the Lord on their lips and pray that God will protect them.

“And when they sit in the trenches and hear the news that their Church is banned, what do you think they feel? That's right, they give up. Because faith is the strongest thing. And when you find out that this faith is being destroyed in the rear, then what will happen next? You have no right to do this,” she added.

The parishioner of the UOC also noted that it is a shame when residents of a democratic state have to prove their right to worship, however, believers do not intend to remain silent.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that the serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine called on the Ukrainian authorities to resolve issues of internal security in a legal way, without taking steps leading to a split in society.