On December 20, 2022, the Holy Synod of the UOC adopted an Open Appeal to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky. This was reported by the Information and Educational Department of the UOC.
In the Appeal, the members of the Synod recalled that “the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is more than a thousand years old. Since the time of the baptism of Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Volodymyr, it was our Church that stood at the origins of Ukrainian statehood. The upsurge of creative thought, science and high art were associated with its beneficial educational and educational influence. In the most critical periods of our nation’s existence, the Holy Church was the force that preserved its identity and gave inspiration to rise from its knees and move on. We see numerous examples of this from the pages of history during the Mongol invasion, the Lithuanian-Polish era, the Cossacks, the Soviet period, and to this day.”
“With the beginning of the invasion of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was the first among other religious organizations to strongly condemn this military aggression and expressed its unconditional support for the territorial integrity of our Motherland. From the very beginning of hostilities, our believers have been defending their country, sacrificing their lives for the liberation of their native land. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church constantly offers prayers and provides financial assistance to military personnel, internally displaced persons and other categories of the population who suffered from the war.
Against this background, the numerous slanders, insults and baseless accusations that are heard towards the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are a big nuisance. They not only form a negative public opinion, but also incite religious hatred, which sets some citizens of Ukraine against others, divides our people, who so need unity in a war. That flurry of dirt that pours out on the Church gives rise to anger and intolerance towards each other in Ukrainian society, which, in turn, leads to spiritual decline and loss of moral values. This prompts the beating of believers and priests, the seizure and destruction of temples and the prohibition of the Church itself. In addition, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is still deliberately called “Russian” and “Moscow”, and believers who are citizens of Ukraine are unreasonably considered enemies only for belonging to this Church,” the appeal says.
“The current war is our common struggle for universal values: freedom, dignity, human rights. And we believe that Ukraine will emerge from the flames of war as a country that respects the constitutional rights of every citizen. That is why there is no place in our state for those means and technologies that offend and despise the Church and cynically offend the religious feelings of millions of believers. These are the methods used by the atheistic authorities during the Soviet totalitarianism. Then were deprived of human rights, exiled and killed hundreds of thousands of clergy, monks and laity, whom we now honor as martyrs and heroes. Today Ukraine is trying once and for all to overcome the totalitarian past for the sake of the future. But the real decommunization must take place in the sphere of human consciousness. Overcoming the remnants of the communist system is impossible if we allow its methods to be applied, especially in the legal, public and information space. In no case should you wage war against God, because this is the road to self-destruction, ”the UOC noted.
Finally, members of the Synod appealed to the President with a request “to ensure the right to freedom of conscience and religion for the believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Protect Ukrainian society from the rhetoric of hatred and intolerance on religious grounds, which incites religious hatred in the country. Unblock the activities of religious organizations that fell under sanctions along with their archpastors. Prevent the adoption of anti-constitutional laws against the Church, which are under consideration in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.”
“We pin our hopes on you that you will be able to avoid an artificial split of the Ukrainian people along religious lines, which is vital in the face of external aggression. Let the spiritual values that we profess and defend really come true, and their implementation will be a real measure of our national maturity,” the Appeal says.
