Translated by Ollie Richardson & Angelina Siard

16:40:09
19/11/2018

ukraina.ru

Supporters of the Ukrainian autocephaly organised a picket in front the building of the Zaporozhye diocese of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. They held posters in the hand bearing the inscriptions “For a United Local Church”, “Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) is a branch of the Kremlin!”, and shouted out the slogan “Communist priest on the gallows!”.

This was reported on November 19th by the head of office of the Zaporozhye diocese archpriest Gennady Elin on his page on Facebook.

“Near the leadership of the Zaporozhye diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church unknown persons carried out a rally and held up posters with false contents,” he wrote.

The participants of the event shouted out chants that kindle religious strife. In particular, in the video posted by Elin it is possible to hear how the participants of the event shout out “Communist priest on the gallows”.

Earlier supporters of Ukrainian autocephaly attacked the residence of Metropolitan Efrem of Krivoy Rog and Nikopol. Schismatics hung on his gate and fence posters bearing slogans for granting Tomos, and one of the participants of the attack tried to break open the gate.

The canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church claims that among the participants of the attack there were members of neo-Nazi organisations, which do not consider themselves as religious people, but, nevertheless, support the idea about the creation of a local church.

The sobor of bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church made the decision to sever eucharistic communication with the Constantinople Patriarchate, which began actions for the granting of Tomos of autocephaly to religious structures in Ukraine.

The political scientist Rostislav Ishchenko considers that Kiev will use the most cruel measures against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, including the occupation of temples whilst hiding behind radicals, assaulting and even murdering priests.

The synod of the Russian Orthodox Church announced on October 15th the serverance of communication with the Constantinople Patriarchate across all the canonical territory of the ROC, including Ukraine and Belarus.

Orthodox churches worldwide also expressed a protest against the actions of the Ecumenical Patriarchate Bartholomew. The Georgian Orthodox Church noted that it will support the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), despite disagreements with the Russian Federation concerning Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which Tbilisi considers to be its territories.

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