The legal basis is being prepared to take away the main Orthodox shrines of Ukraine – the Pochaevskaya and Kiev-Pechersk Lavras
The official website of the Lovčana Diocese predanie.bg. published a letter from Metropolitan Luke of Melitopol and Zaporozhye, which was sent to Metropolitan Gavriil of Lovchan.
Your Eminence, dear Bishop! Beloved in the Lord, gather and intercede before the throne of the King of Glory!
Knowing your firm position in keeping the canons of the Church and your intransigence to the influence of extra-church forces on the life of the Church, allow me to divert your attention to inform you about the events that are currently happening around our Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Today, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church stands on the threshold of new, even more terrible trials since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
It is about the state’s attempts to liquidate it and its violent takeover by the organization called “PCU” headed by Epifanii Dumenko. In carrying out this task, the Church is under unprecedented pressure at all levels.
An unprecedented anti-Church propaganda campaign has been launched in the country, surpassing even the similar campaign conducted by the godless communist government.
The seizure of the temples continues with renewed vigor. For example, in 2022 alone, either through forceful methods or as a result of illegal registration actions by state officials, the schismatics seized 250 churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (against 100 more, violent seizure is being prepared).
Several draft laws have already been registered in the parliament, which provide for the prohibition or substantial limitation of the rights of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The authors of the latter are deputies associated with the Greek Catholics.
Along with this, across the country, regional and city councils make decisions on the termination of the functioning of UOC parishes in their regions. Nikolay Kniazhitskyi (Uniate by Religion) calls to go even further in trampling the law by introducing a ban on the UOC without conducting any preliminary examinations of the statutory documents.
The situation is aggravated by the recent decision of the Constitutional Court, which recognizes the authority of the anti-church law developed during the presidency of Petro Poroshenko, which aims to deprive the UOC of its official name, which will contribute to the forcible seizure of its property in favor of the “UOC” .
The legal basis is being prepared to take away from our Church the main Orthodox sanctuaries of Ukraine – the Pochaevskaya and Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra (some of the temples of the latter have already de facto been handed over for use by the organization headed by Epifany Dumenko).
The management of the UOC was also attacked. In particular, decisions have been made to terminate the citizenship of 12 bishops of our Mother Church, which is the basis for their further deportation beyond the borders of Ukraine. Personal special economic and other restrictive measures (sanctions) have been introduced against a number of bishops. Similar measures are planned for several dozen other hierarchs.
No less indicative is the position of the head of the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, Victor Elensky (close to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, formerly the Uniate Church), who calls for the conduct of religious examinations in order to established whether the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has an ecclesiastical-canonical relationship with the Russian Orthodox Church (if such is “found”, the official plans to liquidate 9,000 municipalities of our Church). The members of the expert commission proposed by him have repeatedly stated their extremely hostile attitude towards the UOC.
A number of participants in these anti-church actions no longer hide the deadlines for the completion of all these initiatives. They are planning the final liquidation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and in time the remnants of It should be absorbed by Dumenko, around Easter in 2023.
In the light of the above, the support of the Local Orthodox Churches is extremely important for the UOC. Their defeated voice can become a valuable tool in resisting the destruction of our Mother Church.
In our opinion, now in Ukraine there is absolutely no struggle for the creation of a “one Orthodox” structure or a change of church jurisdiction. Everything is much deeper and larger.
In fact, it is about the total obliteration of the true, canonical Orthodoxy and the formation of conditions for the proclamation of a new union with the Greek Catholics on Ukrainian land, which both Epiphany Dumenko and the head of the UGCC, Svetoslav Shevchuk, have already spoken about more than once.
In this way, the first stage of the plan for the Catholicization of Ukraine will be completed and the second initiated – the integration of Dumenko’s schismatic structure into the system of the Uniate organization.
In view of what has been said, I dare to ask for your prayerful support and the raising of your voice in defense of canonical Orthodoxy in Ukraine. I will also be grateful for informing your Superior, the members of the Synod and the fellow ministers of your Church about the processes taking place in the religious sphere of Ukraine.
With a feeling of unchanging spiritual respect, I fervently ask the Lord and His Most Pure Mother to send you His holy blessing from above and the Mistress of heaven and earth to keep you under Her gracious cover.
Relying on your divine wisdom and brotherly support,
Zaporizhzhya and Melitopol Metropolitan Luke
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