UOC comments on the KCC’s project to demolish 74 churches

Metropolitan Clement (Vecheria). Photo: screenshot of the video of the YouTube channel “DW in Russian”

The Chairman of the Information Department of the UOC, Metropolitan Clement, commented to the UOJ on the project of Kyiv City Council deputy Vadym Vasylchuk to “inspect” 74 churches in Kyiv.

According to the bishop, such initiatives openly indicate incitement of aggression towards believers of the UOC and promote the legislative establishment of religious segregation in society.

Metropolitan Clement said that the list of churches indicated in the text of the project includes almost all historical shrines of Kyiv city, which either almost never closed or were transferred after closing to the Church back in Soviet times.

“Some deputy, who obviously only recently became a resident of Kyiv and does not know the history of the capital, claims that these churches were built in violation of documentation and were located on territory not approved by officials. The very fact of such statements is some kind of shame, which speaks of the absurdity imposed on society as a norm of life,” the hierarch said.

Commenting on the deputy’s statement that churches could be transferred to other faiths, the bishop asked the question: “If the state believes that an ancient temple cannot belong to the UOC because its location has not been agreed upon with the bureaucrats, then how can this very temple in the same place belong to another religion?”

“We witness the same thing in the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. The reserve is worried that the UOC ‘arbitrarily’ and without the necessary documents built buildings on the territory of the Lavra. And these same buildings are sealed in order to transfer them to other organizations. Naturally, a question arises why the available documents are insufficient for the UOC, while it is possible to use church buildings without any documents at all for other organizations. It is evident in this disproportionate approach that the state is lobbying the interests of some citizens to the detriment of the interests of other similar citizens,” he added.

As the UOJ reported, the Kyiv City Council is considering a project to demolish 74 UOC churches in the capital.

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