Smoke bomb thrown at the temple whose rector is UOC Spokesman

Temple of St. Spyridon of Tremithon in Sviatoshino district of Kiev

The rector of the church, deputy head of the UOC DECR, Protopriest Nikolai Danilevich, believes that the attack was carried out in order to intimidate clergymen. He wrote about this on his Facebook page.

"Last night, at 4:20, an attack was made on the church of St. Spyridon of Tremithon in Sviatoshino district of Kiev, where I serve as a rector. A few unknown people threw a smoke bomb into the temple room through a half-open window, breaking through the mosquito net, and also painted one of the walls of the church with inscriptions: "Drive out Russian Patriarchate from Ukraine."

According to Father Nikolai, the temple attendant quickly threw the pellet out of the temple, though it started to smoke up, and also called the police and criminalists.

"I perceived this situation quite calmly," explained the priest. “To some extent, probably because I'm already used to the fact we have something somewhere constantly burning in Ukraine (or rather, smoking) both in the literal and figurative sense of the word."

He explained: there were several reasons for this reaction. Firstly, because it was necessary to serve the Liturgy; on that day the Gospel was read about the walking of Jesus Christ through the waters of the Sea of Galilee, as well as about the Apostle Peter, who first walked on the water, and then got scared of the strong wind and the sea wave, hesitated and began to sink. "Therefore, today's night attack for our parish is symbolic," the Spokesman believes.

"Perhaps the attackers wanted to frighten, intimidate us. So what? Did they frighten? No. Did they intimidate? No. They got us even more united. Well, at the beginning of the early Liturgy, one could still smell the smoke from the pellet a little in the church, mixed with the scent of church incense, but then the fragrance of the incense won it. So, incense, that is, an incense burner will always win," he writes.

Father Nikolai stressed: "These are all "human infirmities". Namely, the attack itself is bold formally, but inwardly it is weak, has no inner strength, cannot frighten us or lead us astray."

Earlier, the hierarchs of the UOC, as well as the deputy chairman of the Department for External Church Relations, Protopriest Nikolai Danilevich, entered the database of the Mirotvorets (Peacemaker) site for their "counteraction to the SLC initiative".
 

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