Filaret asks Bohdan to abandon the "offensive clichés invented by OCU"
The UOC-KP is disappointed that with the arrival of the new head of the state body for religious affairs, the “Andriy Yurash’s discriminatory policy” continues.
The liquidated UOC-KP called on the head of the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience Olena Bohdan “not to use offensive cliches invented in the Orthodox Church of Ukraine” and not to reduce the problem only to Filaret's status. This is said in a statement published on November 30, 2020, on the organization's Facebook page, regarding a recent interview with the head of the State Service to the Interfax-Ukraine edition.
“Earlier, our Church hoped that with the arrival of the new head of the state body for religious affairs, equal treatment of all denominations would finally reign, as required by the Constitution of Ukraine and the laws,” the statement says. “And now we are sadly forced to state that, apparently, the discriminatory policy of the scandalous Andriy Yurash continues in the future with regard to ignoring the rights of believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, violating the citizens' right to freedom of conscience.”
The UOC-KP stressed that Filaret Denisenko “is neither de facto” nor “de jure” part of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, but is the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, a separate religious organization that has existed since 1992 to this day".
In addition, the statement reads that Filaret should be addressed only as the “Patriarch of Kyiv and All Rus-Ukraine” rather than the “Honorary Patriarch” since this “offends the feelings of the believers of the Kyiv Patriarchate”.
“We ask Ms Olena Bohdan, as a high-ranking government official, who is obliged to treat all confessions and religious organizations that exist in Ukraine equally, not to use offensive cliches invented in the Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” the UOC-KP added. “We reject attempts to reduce the problem only to the status of His Holiness Patriarch Filaret. Now not only the rights of the Head of the Church are violated, but also of a significant number of Ukrainian citizens who want to belong specifically to the UOC-KP, and not to the OCU. "
In conclusion, the UOC-KP once again called on Olena Bohdan, as the head of the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience, which has all the powers, to cancel the order to withdraw the state registration of the Kyiv Patriarchate.
As reported, earlier “Patriarch” Filaret Denisenko applied to the office of the Council of Europe in Ukraine with a request to assist the Ukrainian state authorities in the issue of renewing the registration of the UOC-KP.
