"Miriane”: The trouble is we tend to talk of autocephaly rather than prayer

Many think that changing the status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will save it from persecution and give it an impetus to further development, but no one is sure whether it "will work or not". Valentin Giria, a spokesperson for the Public Union "Miriane" (“Laity”), said this when speaking at the UOC Council.

"Personally, I think that changing the status of our Church will not solve these problems. First, it will not be difficult for our enemies to pin a new label on us, which will immediately shatter our "autocephalous" defence. It would be enough for us to refuse to participate in prayer together with the schismatics or to refuse to violate other church canons to be told: "You are as you have always been. The Kremlin doesn't allow you to do this," said the representative of "Miriane".

Valentin Giria also said that the Church needs development, however not in quantitative but in qualitative terms.

"We, the laity, want to be engaged, we want the Church to be a school of prayer where we will develop, first and foremost, spiritually. Unfortunately, not many laymen nowadays can boast of hearing the interpretation of the Gospel according to the Holy Fathers, teaching about the basics of spiritual life, about prayer in their church," Giria stressed.

According to the spokesperson for the PU "Miriane", autocephaly is an external question in relation to the real essence of church life, and it can be discussed, but only under the condition that other, more important questions will be discussed, without discussion and solution of which the Church risks to lose not only churches and monasteries but also itself. Because when salt loses its power and ceases to salt, it is rendered unusable and thrown away.

Earlier, the public union “Miriane” ridiculed the logic of officials banning the UOC.