RUSSIA RELIGION NEWS



Clergy of Moscow church in Ukraine urged to sever relationship

MOVEMENT OF NONCOMMEMORATION OF PATRIARCH KIRILL HAS BEGUN IN U.P.Ts.M.P. DIOCESES

RISU, 1 March 2022

 

In light of a movement for noncommemoration of Kirill, Andrei Smirnov, a doctor of historical sciences and professor of history of the Ostrog Academy National University, is urging in his comments to sign an appeal of the intelligentsia to clergy and faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in order to promote the spiritual unity of Orthodox Christians in the Rovno region and to lessen aggression against believers of the Moscow patriarchate. Responses are welcomed. The appeal was posted on Facebook.

 

The Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) actually is a part of the totalitarian regime of Putin's Russia. Patriarch Kirill not only did not dare to condemn open war against Ukraine but he supports the Russian army in every way. What else are the words to the effect that God forbid that Ukrainian forces gain the upper hand in this war. Also the doctrine of the "Russian world," which was the basis for the Kremlin's war against Ukraine, was developed by the Russian Orthodox Church. Actually, the Moscow patriarch is openly on the side of the aggressor state.

 

Each word of Patriarch Kirill in Russia's favor and each Russian bullet will reflect not only on the RPTs, but also on the rank and file of clergy and believers of the UPTsMP. As long as you do not speak out clearly regarding the war and do not condemn Russia's aggression and do not sever all canonical ties with the RPTs, you will bear common responsibility with the bloody Moscow patriarchate. You can try as much as you want to prove that you are not the Moscow patriarchate and are a "persecuted church," but it will not matter to people who are bereaved by the war. You will be seen as collaborators and facilitators of the occupiers and not the victims.

 

We know that by no means all who are within the bosom of the UPTsMP support the aggressive war of Russia against Ukraine and the crimes of the Russian army against humanity. Far from all. Finally the time has come to step out of the shadow of the bishop's robes and the hoods of rank and file clergy and to speak your word. Wartime, when every day innocent people perish throughout Ukraine, is not the time for reconciliation and pacifism. We demand from you an immediate and decisive response: on whose side are you?

 

Ukraine will surely triumph, because God is with us. This is not a beautiful dream but harsh reality. And in postwar Ukraine there will be no place for collaborators and agents of Russian influence. Think it over. How will you look in the eyes of a child whose father perished at the hand of a Russian soldier? What will you be able to say to a woman whose child died from rocket fire from the territory of Belarus? If you will not now publicly sever all relations with the Moscow patriarchate, then the responsibility for Putin's sin of Cain will also be your personal responsibility before God. And God is not in might but in right.

 

Today is the time not only to gather stones. Today, while bombs and shells are flying into peaceful cities and while the Orthodox shrines of Kiev, Chernigov, Kharkov, and Donbass are under fire, is the time to make a vital choice.

 

Representatives of the Ukrainian intelligentsia of Rovno region are calling the clergy and believers of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine:

1. To publicly condemn Russia's aggression against Ukraine;

2. Immediately to cease commemorating Patriarch of Moscow Kirill, who could not find a word for his flock in Ukraine;

3. Voluntarily to announce your departure from the Moscow patriarchate and to join dioceses of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in Rovno oblast: the Rovno diocese whose ruling bishop is Archbishop of Rovno and Ostrog Ilarion or the Rovno-Volun diocese whose ruling bishop is Bishop of Rovno and Sarnen Gavriil.

 

Together with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, to help the Ukrainian army and Ukrainian people.

 

To conduct joint prayers to God for Ukraine and its defenders from the Russian enemy.

 

As RISU has reported, the Sumy diocese of the UPTsMP had refused to commemorate Patriarch Kirill. (tr. by PDS, posted 1 March 2022)

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