Brotherhood of St. Andrew the First-Called of UAOC Makes Statement on Events of May 9

A week before the anniversary of reburrial of Taras Shevchenko, on May 14, in Kaniv, a traditional meeting of the All-Ukrainian Brotherhood of St. Andrew the First-Called Apostle was held. It was attended by representatives of the regional brotherhoods from Lviv, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Mykolayiv, Cherkasy.

On the same day, a conference of the brotherhood was held. The participants passed an address to the bishops of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in Ukraine and the diaspora and a statement with regard to provocations of Communists on May 9, 2011. “No one doubts that the scenario of that act of sabotage was prepared outside Ukraine to destabilize the social life of our state. But the wave of violence was directly triggered by the resolution of the Supreme Council of Ukraine regarding the celebration of the 'victory day,' which is foreign to our nation, under the flags of the Communist regime,” note the authors of the statement.  

“For the Ukrainian Christians, the display of the Communist symbols on state institutions is the indication of the return to power of the forces that shot priests and monks, desecrated churches, burned icons and made efforts to uproot the faith in God. To resist these forces is not only a right but a social duty of each believing person. Therefore, it was easy to predict the wave of protest, which was especially powerful in the regions which suffered the most from the godless terror,” said the statement.

The authors of the document defend the All-Ukrainian Association Svoboda. They view the events of May 9 as “efforts to remove that political force from the political process and prohibit its legal activity” and stress that “the confrontation in Ukraine is between the authorities and the people and not between the West and East.”

According to the press service of the Kharkiv-Poltava Eparchy of UAOC, earlier, at a hierarchical Liturgy in the Church of Ascension in Kaniv (Costianets District), “which was seized by the UOC-KP in 2008, has just been returned to the Parish of Ascension of the UAOC according to a court decision,” Archbishop Ihor (Isichenko) reminded about the feat of confession of the victims of the Communist regime.

According to the press service of the eparchy, representatives of the local authorities and police tried to seal the church to prevent the continuation of services of the UAOC. Archbishop Ihor addressed representatives of authorities calling their actions “a political provocation aimed to restore the state of discrimination of the Kaniv community of the UAOC.”