Mass media: LGBT activist present at the "Bishop's Council" of OCU

Ivan Riabchy at the "Bishop's Council" of the OCU. Photo: OCU

A well-known Ukrainian LGBT activist Ivan Riabchy was seen at the "Bishops' Council" of the OCU on December 14, 2019, reports the EADaily.

Riabchy, also known under the pseudonym Ivan Tussauds, sat together with members of the "Council" of the OCU next to "hierarchs" Dimitriy Rudiuk and Mikhail (Philip) Laroche, who in May 2019 declared his subordination to the French Metropolis of the Constantinople Patriarchate. Riabchy attended the "Council" as an interpreter for Laroche, who is a French citizen.

The authors of the Facebook page, sympathetic to the UOC-KP, wrote in a comment on the presence of an LGBT activist at the "Council" of the OCU: "Riabchy is an open homosexual. He is a regular participant of all gay parades that were held in Kyiv. And now he participates in the Bishop's Council of the OCU. As it follows from this, not only the liturgy is intended to be reformed in the OCU...".

The EADaily reported that Ivan Riabchy is "a glamorous journalist, translator of modern French fiction and philosophic literature, a leader of the Ukrainian LGBT movement".

According to the journalists, Riabchy, who in addition to his orientation positions himself as a nationalist and patriot, has previously been close to the leadership of the UOC-KP.  For example, in 2016, "Patriarch" Filaret (Denisenko) awarded Riabchy with the Order of the UOC-KP "for special services in reviving spirituality in Ukraine.

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that a Phanar observer delegation arrived at the "Council" of the UOC.

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