UOC believers: Why it’s important to voice our stance to Phanar head

The prayer standing of UOC believers at the Verkhovna Rada on 15.06.21. Photo: UOJ

The NGO “Miriane” ("Laity") explained why it is important to come to the building of the Verkhovna Rada in Kyiv on August 21, 2021, to demand a meeting with Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.

It is already pointless to continue protests against the arrival of the Phanar head since it is known that he will definitely visit Kyiv, the UOC believers stated.

Therefore, the NGO “Miriane” explained on their TG channel, “it is much wiser to invite him to a meeting with those people whom he ignores and calls the remnants of the ROC in Ukraine, with those who have lost their churches because of his false “healing”. He must look them in the eye and solve their problems."

“Our call to a meeting puts Patriarch Bartholomew in front of a difficult choice: if his conscience is clear and he really worries about the fate of Orthodox Ukrainians as he declares everywhere, he will come and hear the whole truth from us,” the message says. “And after that, he will not be able to continue his previous policy. If the head of the Phanar ignores "his flock" (as he calls us), then in the face of the whole world he will clearly confirm the hypocrisy of his own rhetoric."

Commenting on the fears of some people that the information about the prayer service of the UOC could be twisted and presented as an act of support for Patriarch Bartholomew, the NGO “Miriane” noted that this is unlikely to work out: the believers will have posters with portraits of His Beatitude Onuphry, pictures of seized churches and beaten parishioners.

“And the most important thing is that our Church and our Primate, His Beatitude Onuphry, now need our support. The Phanar stated that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church allegedly does not exist, and Metropolitan Onuphry is not the Metropolitan of Kyiv. All that remains in Ukraine is the shortfalls of the ROCU.

Therefore, now we must become the voice of the Church and firmly say to Bartholomew: we do exist, our Church is the UOC, our Primate is Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine. And what the Phanar and his pupils from the "OCU" are doing is illegal, blatant and has nothing to do with Orthodoxy. You cannot "fail to see" us, you cannot ignore us.

We will stand up for our faith and our Primate – His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry and the canonical Church of the majority of Orthodox Ukrainians – the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” the believers emphasized.

As reported earlier, UOC believers are urged to testify to their faith before the Phanar head and come on August 21, 2021, at 9:00 to the building of the Verkhovna Rada in Kyiv.

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