Heads of Ukrainian Denominations Call President Not To Sign Language Bill

In an open letter to Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych, Heads of Ukrainian Churches and religious organizations called the adoption of the scandalous law on the language a path to the precipice, to civil conflict and disintegration of the state.

“We have to note with regret that our voice was not heard. On 3 July, the contradictory language bill was declared passed by the Supreme Council of Ukraine,” reads the letter.

“The people who consider this event a victory are seriously mistaken. It is a Pyrrhic Victory. It is a “victory” over civil understanding and basic principles of parliamentarianism which are by definition to reflect social compromise,” stressed the heads of Churches and religious organizations.

In their opinion, “the deepening of the language division combined with the political confrontation is further deepening the social divide and shaking the foundations of the Ukrainian statehood.”

The religious leaders earnestly called Ukraine’s President “not to sign the explosive language bill  #9073, veto it and return it to the Supreme Council for a real, full-value consideration and development of a balanced decision.”

They also called the President to initiate a national social and professional dialogue on the language problems on the results of which a bill, which is new in essence,  should be based.

According to the religious leaders, the balanced language policy in Ukraine should also protect the state status of the Ukrainian language and promote the development and functioning of the languages of the national minorities.

The open letter was signed by the following persons:

Head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate, Patriarch Filaret,

Supreme Archbishop Sviatoslav of Kyiv and Halych of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church,

Administrator of the Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine, Bishop Markian Trofymiak,

President of the All-Ukrainian Union of Associations of Evangelical Christians Baptists, Viacheslav Nesteruk,

Senior Bishop of the All-Ukrainian Union of Churches of Christians of Evangelical Faith, the Pentecostals, Mykhailo Panochko,

Senior Presbyter of the Union of Free Churches of Evangelical Faith of Ukraine, Vasyl Raichynets,

Bishop of the Ukrainian Lutheran Church, Viacheslav Horpynchuk,

Pastor of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ukraine, Andrii Hamburg,

Head of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of Ukraine, Sheikh Akhmed Tamim,

President of the Ukrainian Bible Society, Hryhorii Komendant.