At the Congress of the "persecuted", which was organized in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra of the UOC-MP, the Chancellor, Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanych) boasted that "through the necessary legal procedures, the law on the so-called renaming of religious organizations was blocked through the court."
He noted that with the help of this law, they "wanted to take away the official name of the church and create conditions for a large-scale raider seizure of churches."
The text of the speech was published on the website of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, Religiyna Pravda reports.
According to Anthony, the Moscow Patriarchate "does everything possible to protect its believers and their rights."
Among the merits, he listed an appeal to the President of Ukraine and other statesmen "calling for doing everything possible to stop discrimination against the canonical Church and its flock," as well as the fact that "through the necessary legal procedures, the scandalous law on the so-called renaming of religious organizations was blocked through the court, with the help of which they wanted to take away the official name from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and create conditions for a large-scale raider seizure of its churches."
He also told how their "persecuted" Church is building new churches, in particular, services are already being held in 34 rebuilt churches, and 4 more are under construction.
As RISU has already reported, on Monday, February 22, a "Human Rights Forum" was launched in the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra in the form of a Congress of representatives of communities of the UOC-MP, whose churches, according to the UOC-MP, are "captured by the OCU".
About 300 believers who allegedly" suffered from persecution "were brought to the Lavra as" witnesses of the lawlessness of the OCU".
The official website of the UOC-MP published the appeal of Metropolitan Onufriy to the participants of this forum. The head of the UOC-MP calls in the appeal for "standing firm and not being afraid" and declares the persecution of the Church.
MP Rostyslav Pavlenko believes that the Congress of representatives of "Parishes of Captured Churches" of the UOC-MP, which took place in Kyiv, is an attempt to put pressure on the judicial branch of government and an attempt on state security.