The UOC will not be banned. All current bills are designed only to take away property. Do you want to pick up? Take it. But you can’t take away faith! And you will not take away the Church. Archpriest Sergei Yushchik said this in an interview with dialogtut.org.

“The Lord gave us the opportunity to revive faith after atheistic dominance. And we started building temples. As soon as we gilded them, how now the Lord tells us: “Well done! Let’s see if you’ve gilded souls. We take temples. Do you have faith? Do you only have faith when you have a temple?”

The position of the Higher Church Administration looks somewhat strange in this vein. Like, if you take the Lavra, people will go anyway. I will say this: this is a disdain for people, as if they are pagans and mechanically go to some particular building. Or we will expel some, others will come. God is not in buildings.

The state initiative is to take the property. Yes, this is an architectural monument, state property. The Communists once stole from the Church, and the current government says: “This is mine.” Well, let. So, you are the heirs of the communists, since you profess their ideology.

Do you want to pick up? Take it. But you can’t take away faith! And you won’t take the Church,” said the priest.

He added: “As a religious organization, we exercise our powers within the framework of Ukrainian legislation and do everything necessary on our part. We respect state laws, we revere God’s Laws. We declare our faith not by words, but by deeds. Therefore, all these claims – about the Council and the Synod – on the part of the state are similar to if the clergy were indignant at the power outage schedules.