RPTs URGES ITS PRIESTS TO FIND COMMON GROUND WITH
ZELENSKY
Representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church (RPTs) in
Ukraine must
find common ground with the possible victor in elections for
president of
Ukraine, the showman Vladimir Zelensky.
This was declared in his Telegram account "Orthodox
politics"
by RPTs Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, who noted that it is
necessary to demand
"written guarantees."
"Traditionalists must achieve agreement with the leader
in the
race. Demanding written guarantees for the ending of
persecutions of the
canonical church, a return of political émigrés and critics of
the 'European
choice' in politics and public life before the elections to the
Rada, and the
appointment as the minister of culture (who oversees religion)
of Yury Boiko,
Viktor Medvedchuk, or Vasily Anisimov (the head of the press
service of the
UPTsMP—ed. note). The last named could also become the
specialized
vice-chairman for religion," the Russian clergyman thinks.
Chaplin also added that "hopes for all of this are not
so great;
the West also will demand something of Zelensky." (tr. by PDS,
posted 3
April 2019)
HEAD OF OVTsS OF RPTs AWAITS END OF "PERSECUTION OF
CHURCH"
FROM NEW UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT
Religiia
v Ukraine, 3 April 2019
The head of the Department for External Church
Relations (OVTsS) of the
Moscow patriarchate, Metropolitan Ilarion, spoke on air on the
program Church
and World on the Rossiia-24 television channel; Russian
Interfax quoted him on
1 April, Religiia v Ukraine reports, citing Credo.Press.
"Ukrainian President Poroshenko has shown himself to
be a
persecutor of the church, and the Russian Orthodox Church
expects of the new
president that he will put an end to persecutions of the
church. This is our
most important expectation of the new Ukrainian president, who
ever he may
be," Metropolitan Ilarion declared; he is a persona non grata
in Ukraine.
He noted that the heads of state who have shown
themselves to be
persecutors of the church "never ended their lives well," and
he
expressed the hope that the new president of Ukraine "will put
an end to
this lawlessness, this tyranny."
"Freedom of religious confession," the chairman of
OVTsSMP
added, "consists, among others, in the fact that each
religious community
chooses for itself its name; the state does not name religious
communities with
this denomination or that. Now these fundamental freedoms of
Ukrainian citizens
are being violated. Millions of Ukrainian citizens, who are
members of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church, are now under threat of being
deprived of their own
church, and this threat is quite openly being expressed by
politicians,
including Poroshenko, who told Ukrainian believers that if
they do not like the
new autocephalous church, they should depart from the
country."
"There are candidates who are more or less sympathetic
for me, but
our church rules do not permit me to publicly express my
opinion toward one or
another candidate," Metropolitan Ilarion said.
At the same time, Credo.Press notes that while urging Ukrainian authorities "to put an end to persecutions of the church," within Russia itself the RPTs is exerting efforts to restrict the rights of Orthodox communities that are outside of its jurisdiction. Thus, in particular, the Klintsov diocese of the RPTs is acting as the plaintiff in a case regarding the release of the church of Holy Elijah in the city of Trubchevsk (Briansk oblast) from the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church; the parish has occupied the church on legal bases since 1991. (tr. by PDS, posted 3 April 2019)
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