UOC comments on the calls to switch to the Latin alphabet

Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich) of Boryspil and Brovary, Chancellor of the UOC. Photo: facebook.com/MitropolitAntoniy

Narratives that Ukraine is poor due to the fact that it uses Cyrillic instead of Latin are absurd, said the Chancellor of the UOC, Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich) of Boryspil and Brovary in an interview with the Orthodox Life portal.

His Eminence Anthony drew attention to the confusion in the heads of professional “patriots”.

“On the one hand, they are very fond of recalling the majestic era of Kievan Rus and the glorious times of the Zaporozhye Cossacks, on the other hand, they attack what was most important for the ancient Russians and the Cossacks,” he noted.

We are forced to hear the maxim that Ukraine is so poor and therefore cannot be Europeanized, that unlike the "developed European countries", we have a different faith and a different alphabet. What could be more ridiculous? The same Kievan Rus, which deliberately chose Byzantine Christianity instead of Western Latin, at one time was the strongest and most cultured state in Europe. The educational level of the ancient Russians was much higher than that of many contemporary Europeans. Did the Cyrillic alphabet interfere with this? Did Orthodoxy interfere with this? I think that for any person who is in the slightest degree familiar with history, these are rhetorical questions."

Metropolitan Anthony compared the attempt to correct the economic problems of Ukraine by changing the alphabet with claims that the creation of the OCU would help overcome the church schism.

“When now someone begins to complain about the modern economic and political problems of Ukraine and blame Orthodoxy and the Cyrillic alphabet for this, he must seriously ask himself: is Orthodoxy to blame for total corruption?” wonders the UOC hierarch. “Or, perhaps, the transition to the Latin alphabet will stop the rise in prices for utilities? Or will the rejection of Orthodoxy contribute to an increase in pensions?

Of course not. All these silly fantasies are akin to what we would hear before the creation of the so-called OCU – that this will ostensibly end the church schism. It didn't in the end. Same thing here."

According to Vladyka Anthony, the only thing that can unite the country at the moment is Orthodoxy, and the Cyrillic alphabet makes us related to our ancestors.

“For Ukraine to live happily, one doesn’t have to change the alphabets, but as a cliché – to stop squandering state property, stop dividing the people, stop breeding hatred, stop deceiving citizens. Moreover, as has been said more than once, we should start with ourselves and do it right today,” he summed up.

As reported by the UOJ, the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine spoke in favor of abandoning the Cyrillic alphabet.

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