UOC believers are urged to testify to their faith before Phanar head
The purpose of the prayer action of the UOC is to show Patriarch Bartholomew that his idea of the church situation in Ukraine has nothing to do with reality.
The NGO “Miriane” (“Laity”) calls on the believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to come on August 21, 2021, at 9:00 am to the building of the Verkhovna Rada in Kyiv to pray together to overcome the schism and to meet with Patriarch Bartholomew.
“The Patriarch of Constantinople must understand that his idea of the Ukrainian church situation has nothing to do with reality. That we are Ukrainians with Ukrainian passports, and not the ROCiU (Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine – Ed.), ‘FSB agents’ or a marginal ‘non-existent church’ as he now calls us. That we are a huge canonical Church that has stood on our land for 1033 years. That our Primate, His Beatitude Onuphry, is the legitimate Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine, and not a ‘Russian hierarch in Ukraine’,” the NGO “Miriane” notes on its TG channel.
Representatives of those religious communities whose temples are seized by OCU supporters and radicals are especially asked to come.
The UOC faithful believe that communication with parishioners who have suffered from church raiding "will be especially interesting and informative for Patriarch Bartholomew".
If the head of the Phanar does not dare to meet, then this “will also be a clear answer both to us, millions of Orthodox Christians of the UOC, and the entire Orthodox world".
As reported, UOC believers wrote a letter to Patriarch Bartholomew asking for a meeting if he comes to Ukraine.