REPRESENTATIVE OF RPTsMP LEADERSHIP ACCUSES UKRAINE OF "VIOLATION OF THE LOGIC OF THE MINSK AGREEMENTS"
Portal-credo.ru, 15 February 2015
A representative of the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow patriarchate rushed to accuse Ukraine of "violation of the logic of the Minsk agreements" already before the beginning of the truce and far from the ATO zone.
The continuing "seizures" (in the majority of cases, voluntary transfers of parishes to another jurisdiction) of UPTsMP churches violate the logic of the agreements reached on 12 February in Minsk, since the inviolability of canonical churches in Ukraine is an important characteristic of the development of the process of peaceful settlement of the conflict, thinks the chairman of the synod's Information Department of the Moscow patriarchate, Vladimir Legoida.
Earlier there appeared on the website of UPTsMP a report that the "Right Sector" seized a UPTsMP church in Cherkassy province the day before. According to the UPTsMP report, this "illegal seizure" had been preceded by a "veche," at which people who are not residents of the village and have nothing to do with the parish resorted to outright insults of believers. UPTsMP notes that the organizers of the "veche" also intimidated the local priest, forcing him "to transfer into schism."
"I am sure that attempts at seizure of church
buildings violate the logic of the peace initiatives of Minsk,
which sowed hope for peace in the hearts of many millions of
people," RIA Novosti quoted Legoida on 13 February. He thinks that
civil peace in Ukraine is inseparable from the cessation of strife
and discord, whose expression includes violence with respect to
"canonical churches." "In the churches of the canonical Orthodox
church in Ukraine there are not nor can there be threat of any
kind. This is a false perception expressed in the anger and hatred
of recent times. And for the sake of the peace hoped for by
everybody it is very important to reject it," the Information
Department chairman concluded. (tr. by PDS, posted 17 February
2015)
Background article:
Nationalist
militants pressure Orthodox to join Kiev patriarchate
February 13, 2015
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