Metropolitan Luke addresses Patriarch of the Georgian Church

Metropolitan Luke (Kovalenko) of Zaporozhye and Melitopol

Metropolitan Luke of Zaporozhye and Melitopol has sent an open letter to Patriarch Ilia II of All Georgia, reports the press service of the Zaporozhye eparchy.

The reason for the appeal was the situation "which arose as a result of the non-canonical intervention of the Constantinople Patriarchate in the internal affairs of the self-governing Ukrainian Orthodox Church and which became a shameful act of recognizing pseudo-religious schismatic organizations," the bishop notes.

“The apotheosis of this lawlessness was the formation on the basis of the structures which had fallen away from the Mother Church of the so-called Orthodox Church of Ukraine, whose autocephalous position the Constantinople Patriarchate single-handedly established by granting the Tomos,” the message reads.

According to the Metropolitan, this fact became an ideological justification for the persecution against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, headed by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry, which is recognized by all the Local Churches. He also points to anti-constitutional discriminatory laws which oblige the Church to change its name.

“These laws also, through raider manipulations, allow seizing the property of our communities with the help of radical nationalist elements. The local authorities are zealously trying to please them in order to show their loyalty to their superiors; by persuasion or intimidation, they are attempting to transfer UOC communities to the newly created religious and political chimera,” says Metropolitan Luke.

Vladyka believes that because of the actions of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, aimed at satisfying the political ambitions of the people who are in power today and who are afraid of losing it, Ukraine has received another social fault line.

“Therefore, appealing to Your Holiness, I humbly ask you to hear the lamentations of the faithful of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the flock of the Zaporozhye eparchy entrusted to me, suffering from gross anti-constitutional interference of the state in the internal affairs of our Church ... I hope Your Holiness and Beatitude will again confirm your allegiance to patristic ecclesiology by your own example and not recognize the religious-political organization created in Ukraine under the name ‘Kiev Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (the Orthodox Church of Ukraine)’ and call on all the Local Churches for a pan-Orthodox discussion of the actions of the Constantinople Patriarchate in the Ukrainian land," the metropolitan writes in a message.

As the UOJ reported, the monk of the Archangel Michael Zverinets Monastery in Kiev, Schema-archimandrite Job (Grishchenko) also asks the Georgian Orthodox Church to support the UOC during the persecutions and not recognize the schismatic OCU. In turn, the hierarch of the Georgian Church, Metropolitan Andrew (Gvazava) of Gori and Ateni, believes that obtaining autocephaly for the Church should take place only in the canonical way.

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