UOC reps comment on blasphemous "performance" near Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra

The blasphemous "funeral service for the UOC-MP", which was staged on Wednesday near the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra by "Eurosolidarity" activists led by "magician Belial", indicates only the "cultural, mental and intellectual inferiority" of its participants. Metropolitan Clement, head of the Information and Education Department of the UOC, said this in a commentary to the Telegram channel "Molodizhna Spilka ‘Odygitriya’”.

According to the bishop, "the fact that there have been more such shameful cases recently does not mean that they are becoming the norm for Ukrainian society”.

" When the first attempts of public blasphemy appeared, they shocked not only me but also many other people. Today, these individuals evoke in me no other emotions than deep compassion, as their behaviour signifies not so much a struggle against the Church but rather a profound internal drama. One hopes that someday in their lives they will come to understand the fallacy of such actions," said the bishop.

He added that the organizers of the "performance" are "counting on our attention, they need an audience," so "ignoring this outrage will be the best counteraction to it."

Father Sergiy Yushchik, the First Vice-Rector of the Kyiv Theological Academy and Seminary, noted in a comment to "Channel 5" that the latter "hit a new low, broadcasting a completely Satanic act in a Christian country".

"It was not a performance; it was Satanism because Satanism distorts Christianity," explained the priest. "The 'activists' took Church attributes, a real censer, black candles as opposed to church candles, and they used genuine church prayers prescribed in liturgical books, particularly in the prayer book of St. Peter Mohyla. I personally heard the farewell prayer that priests read at funerals over the deceased, and that person deliberately inserted profanities wherever the name of Jesus Christ was mentioned. He wore a pendant with a horned creature. They used the holiest hymn of Orthodox Christianity, which is sung on Sundays: 'Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death.' They deliberately sang it in Old Slavonic, and the word 'beings' was distorted with profanities. And it was about the Risen Jesus Christ."

Father Sergiy emphasized that it is unacceptable "to invoke death in a country at war, where we send off soldiers to the frontlines on our knees and receive them, unfortunately, deceased, on our knees, mourn the dead, to call for death while doing so in a mocking manner, waving crosses in a sacrilegious way."

"I am not raising the issue of denominations now, I am addressing all Christians, the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches, all those people for whom prayer and the name of Jesus Christ are sacred. It was mocked today," the priest said.

Earlier Metropolitan Theodosy of Cherkasy and Kaniv said that the opponents of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church do not understand that they are fighting not people but God Himself.