Visit of Patriarch Kirill Demonstrates Tendencies of Post-Soviet Orthodoxy, States Archbishop of UAOC

On July 21, Archbishop Ihor (Isichenko) of Kharkiv and Poltava of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church published a statement saying that the visit of Patriarch Kirill to Ukraine brings to Ukraine an image of a powerful, successful, and rich organization included in the top of a criminalized bourgeois-functionary hierarchy, that is it shows dangerous tendencies of post-Soviet Orthodoxy. According to the archbishop, it is very noticeable in the mass media, which are loyal to the UOC-Moscow Patriarchate and exploit the nostalgia for the Communist past that still exists among Ukrainians, which makes one wonder about the character of the mission of Patriarch Kirill in Ukraine.

"Warlike preaching of one's exclusiveness, hatred for opponents, moral relativism, cult of richness and strength, spirit of competence, disrespect for the historic heritage of Ukraine, hypocritical sanctimony are the increasing tendencies in the community headed by Patriarch Kirill. In the bosom of the formally Orthodox Russian Empire, one hundred years ago, the most terrible totalitarian idea in the history of mankind was ripening, whose victims became millions of Orthodox Christians – Bolshevism," noted Archbishop Ihor in his statement.

Full statement found here.