UOC spokesman: We want Ukraine to be integral and united
Believers of the UOC are citizens of Ukraine who want to see their country peaceful and united, Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich recalled.
Parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church want to see Ukraine cohesive and united, Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich, Deputy Head of the Department for External Church Relations of the UOC, emphasized on the air of the KRT television channel (56:57 minute video).
“We are also citizens of Ukraine <...>. We want Ukraine to be peaceful and calm. We want Ukraine to be cohesive and united so that both ‘we’ and ‘they’ live in it together and so that there is no separation into ‘we’ and ‘they’ but there is only ‘we’,” he said.
The clergyman drew the attention of the public to the fact that only such a unity of the whole nation, regardless of the differences in the views of each individual person, is capable of ensuring Ukraine's future and preserving our country in the arena of history.
For this end, we need an inclusive, unifying ideology, explained Archpriest Nikolai.
He also recalled that back in 2010, the biased media began to instill an ideology of separation on religious grounds (32:05 a minute video), while until that time, society discarded anti-clerical ideas, since they found them reminiscent of the Soviet atheistic ideology.
“I think it all began around 2010-2012, when anti-church fibs on television began, when 1+1 TV channel began to cause various scandals for no reason,” Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich noted.
He also noted that the state should put an end to the situation with the seizure of the UOC temples.
