Representatives of three pro-Russian Orthodox organizations have condemned the pro-European integration statements by the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), Metropolitan Volodymyr (Slobodan). According to them, “the vast majority of believers” of the UOC-MP support the unity of the “Russian World.”
On November 4 the leaders of these organizations plan to hold a procession to show, according to them, the true attitude of citizens toward European integration. The UOC-MP indicated that it is not interested in the geopolitical preferences of the believers.
According to the newspaper Kommersant (Ukraine), yesterday representatives of the pro-Russian Orthodox NGOs – the organizations Orthodox Choice, the Union of Orthodox Brotherhoods of Ukraine, and the National Council – distributed a press release critical of the European integration statements of the head of the UOC-MP.
According to the head of National Council, Ihor Druz, the three Orthodox organizations represent nearly a million believers. “The vast majority of believers of the UOC-MP do not support European integration but unity of the Russian World as a spiritual space where the canonical Orthodox Church occupies a leading place in society. The government’s present policy, aimed at Ukraine signing an Association Agreement with the EU, the Orthodox community considers a betrayal of the essence of the civilizational essence of the people of Ukraine, as well as the centuries-old fraternal community of the peoples of Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus,” reads the statement by the leaders of the organizations.
According to the authors of the statement, the procession on November 4 will show the true attitude of believers toward European integration. “Using the procession we will try to avert from of our land the disaster of European integration, because our Christian faith objects the promotion of all that is normally accepted in the European Union, such as sodomy, the legalization of drugs and euthanasia,” said Ihor Druz. In his opinion, “not only the majority of believers, but most citizens” are against European integration.
The UOC-MP reacts calmly to such appeals. “For us, the possible signing of the association agreement with the EU is neither Good Friday nor Easter. Believers can have various political and geopolitical views. The church does not divide parishioners on this basis. We pray for the salvation of each and every member of the church, and for the government so that it can conduct policy that suits the majority of citizens of Ukraine. Regarding the appeal from the Orthodox organizations, there are no statistics about who most of the believers support, and the church has already a long time ago expressed its attitude toward so-called ‘political Orthodoxy,’” the press secretary of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-MP, Archpriest Heorhiy Kovalenko, told Kommersant.
It should be noted that in 2007 the UOC-MP condemned the activities of a number of pro-Russian organizations for “bringing into the church community political slogans,” which by their nature “do not reflect the spirit of Christ's preaching.”