Rector of UOC from Ptycha: Phanar head is with those who violate all laws
We remain faithful to the Church, despite persecution, pressure and provocations, said the rector of the persecuted community in Ptycha at the prayer standing in Kyiv.
Unfortunately, Patriarch Bartholomew is with those “priests” who violate the laws of the Church, morality and state, said the rector of the seized Holy Dormition Church of the UOC in the village of Ptycha, Rivne region, Archpriest Gregory Stadnik, a participant in the prayer standing near the residence of the Phanar head in Kyiv, in a commentary to the “1Kozak” channel.
According to the priest, whose community has been suffering from church raiders for six years, believers came to Kyiv to once again testify to their faithfulness to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and its Primate, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry, and also to “convey to the patriarch, who calls himself Ecumenical, that he, recognizing the so-called OCU, makes a big mistake and brings a lot of trouble to our Ukrainian land."
However, the Patriarch of Constantinople did not come out to the UOC believers to answer their questions, Fr. Gregory stated.
“When the church was seized in our village, the representative of the then UOC-KP, Igor Zagrebelny, told us the following words: “Damn your Mother Church, your laws and canons,” said the rector of the persecuted community in Ptycha. ‘I.e. a person who calls himself a priest violated the laws of the Church, the laws of morality and the laws of the state, he thinks little of them. Unfortunately, today we see the Ecumenical Patriarch joining the group of these people."
According to the cleric, the believers of the UOC will gather constantly to testify to their faith, and "if need be, they will stand to the end".
He recalled that after the 1917 revolution, the authorities already tried to create their own "pocket Church", as it is happening today, "but one of the Church Fathers said: 'The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians’.”
“We are the seed of those people who gave us their faith. I hope we will keep the faith and pass it on to our children,” said Archpriest Gregory Stadnik.
As reported, His Beatitude Onuphry came to the laity who are standing in prayer near the residence of the Phanar head in Kyiv.
