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Speech by Metropolitan Onufry of Kyiv and All Ukraine at the opening of the meeting of bishops, priests, monks and laity of the UOC

Your Eminences and Eminences!

All-honorable fathers, abbots of monasteries and mother abbesses!

Dear fathers, brothers and sisters!

On May 27, 1992, exactly 30 years ago, a historic event took place for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. In the city of Kharkov, a Council of Bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was convened, which went down in history as the Kharkov Bishops’ Council. The decisions made determined the further historical path of our Church. The past 30 years of church life have shown the correctness and expediency of these decrees. In those difficult years for Ukraine in the 1990s, the Council was able not only to preserve the unity of our Church, but also to protect it from the forces that tried to use the institution of the Church for their own purposes.

Today Ukraine is going through the hardest times. For more than three months there has been a war that the Russian Federation started against Ukraine. Military operations have already claimed thousands of lives of our compatriots, houses have been destroyed, families have been orphaned, innocent people are suffering. It is impossible to describe all the consequences of the ongoing war, just as it is impossible to find words to convey all the pain of millions of Ukrainians. Not to lose humanity and the image of God when evil has filled the hearts, not to waver in faith in God – these are super-difficult tasks facing each of us.

From the first day of the military invasion of Russian troops on the territory of our sovereign and independent State, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church condemned this military aggression and called for an end to the bloodshed. The voice of our Church, unfortunately, remained unheard. 14 out of 53 dioceses of our Church suffer especially from hostilities, more than 80 churches are destroyed, clergymen, monks and believers of our Church are killed. In addition to intense prayer for peace in Ukraine, shelters from shelling and bombing were equipped in churches and holy monasteries from the first days of the war. The Church joined not only in the defense of the Motherland, but also in all-round assistance to Ukrainian military personnel, hospitals, civilians, refugees and all those in need.

During the three months of the war, the dioceses of our Church have provided assistance to the citizens of Ukraine on an ongoing basis. In particular, more than 13 thousand settlers were accommodated in churches and monasteries. Every day, Orthodox volunteers feed almost 6,000 people, and more than 2,000 people receive humanitarian aid. About 1.5 thousand tons of humanitarian aid were distributed to the victims.

Through the efforts of the clergy and believers from all dioceses, 126 tons of humanitarian aid were handed over to orphanages, hospitals, departments of social protection, humanitarian centers, refugee settlements. In addition, the clergy, students of theological schools and laity regularly donate blood to the wounded and injured.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine received military ammunition worth one and a half million hryvnias. Purchased 20 vehicles. The military and their families received 190 tons of humanitarian aid. Diverse assistance is received by units of the Territorial Defense. In addition, Ukrainian parishes abroad and Local Orthodox Churches are joining through our Church, which sent dozens of tons of aid to the eparchies of the UOC. And this is far from all the help that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has been providing every day for three months now to our defenders and injured civilians.

However, despite such a strong and real participation of the Church in overcoming the war, religious hostility towards the UOC artificially increased in society. Representatives of other confessions, individual deputies and civil servants, abusing their power and official position, bring illegal and unfounded accusations against our Church. Everyone knows that these accusations are not true. However, such biased statements, built on emotions rather than arguments, serve as grounds for political slogans regarding the ban on the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

On March 22 this year, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine registered bill No. 7204 “On the ban on the Moscow Patriarchate on the territory of Ukraine”, which proposes to ban the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Ukraine. According to the document, after its adoption, all church property of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is inventoryed and nationalized within 48 hours in accordance with the procedure established by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. The Holy Dormition Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra, Holy Dormition Svyatogorsk Lavra and other architectural monuments of national importance, owned or used by our Church, become the property of the state, and agreements on use are cancelled. In addition, local governments and their officials made more than 20 illegal decisions to ban or restrict the activities of local religious communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. More than 40 raider seizures of our temples and more than 15 cases of confrontations and typos of temples have been recorded. Fifty of our religious communities were forced by force to transfer to the so-called Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

Thousands of parishes and religious organizations of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church have been established and operate in accordance with the legislation of Ukraine. During numerous inspections and searches by law enforcement agencies of our churches, according to the statements of the so-called activists, no signs of anti-state activity were found. However, this does not stop people who are far from the Church from continuing to conduct an open anti-Church campaign. During the bloodshed from the armed confrontation at the front, in the territories of local communities in the rear, due to far-fetched facts, Ukrainians are divided into friends and foes. Local self-government bodies deliberately violate the constitutional principle of separation of the state from the Church and the equality of all before the law, at a time when freedom of religion does not allow the state to provide benefits to one religious organization and restrict the exercise of the rights of another. Religious communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are under constant pressure from state authorities and raiders. Without going into the legal subtleties of the illegality of such decisions, I note that the most painful thing is that the crimes against Ukrainians belonging to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are committed by Ukrainians.

With regard to unlawful interference in the activities of our Church and the commission of actions aimed at inciting religious enmity and hatred, the image of the feelings of citizens in connection with their religious beliefs, relevant letters have already been sent to the Prosecutor General of Ukraine and the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Human Rights. In many dioceses, criminal and administrative cases have been initiated against persons who have committed offenses. We will continue to protect our rights by legal means.

The historical path of the Church is the path of the cross of Christ the Savior. And in past times, clergy and believers were artificially made enemies of the state, and the Church was attributed various activities that were not inherent in it. However, the people who fought against the Church have long gone into oblivion, but the Church of Christ has endured and continues to carry out its saving mission, because the Church is the Body of Christ. We believe that even in modern conditions the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, like our entire Ukrainian State, will stand and win.

The problems of previous years, as well as new challenges that have now arisen due to hostilities on the territory of Ukraine, prompted us to gather in this holy monastery to discuss them and express our attitude and proposals.

I want to wish all of us fruitful work for the glory of God in the spirit of love, brotherly trust and mutual respect.

May 27, 2022, Kyiv

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