Spokesperson for UOC: Law on renaming aimed at dividing Ukrainians

Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich. Photo: UOC Synodal Information Department

The renaming of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church into the ROC in Ukraine, envisaged by the anti-church law, was invented by propagandists during the presidency of Petro Poroshenko with the aim of dividing our people, said Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich, Deputy Head of the Department for External Church Relations of the UOC, in the story of the Nash TV channel about the round table “Three years of attempts to forcibly rename the Ukrainian Orthodox Church: consequences, assessments, comments”.  

The UOC spokesperson recalled that the so-called Law on forced renaming was adopted on December 20, 2018, – when the OCU Tomos appeared. Moreover, the term "ROCU" itself does not exist in any of the legal or canonical documents.

“There is no such thing as the ROC in Ukraine in any documents, neither legal, nor canonical, nor in Ukraine, nor in Russia,” said Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich. “This phrase was invented by the propagandists of the Poroshenko era, including people who are opponents of our Church in the religious sphere. And it is aimed at dividing our people into the ‘right’ and the ‘wrong’ Ukrainians."

As reported, the round table in the Lavra adopted an appeal to the authorities, in which it called for the urgent repeal of the anti-church law.

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