"The year 2023 in the religious sphere of our country passed under the sign of pressure on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church", - Primate of the UOC

The Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry of Kyiv and All Ukraine, has called on the state authorities to stop putting pressure on the UOC and to consolidate the efforts of all citizens of the country, regardless of their confessional affiliation. His Beatitude stated this in his congratulatory speech on the occasion of the day of the Sobornost of Ukraine, the official website of the UOC reports.

«Unfortunately, with the course of the war, the people’s unity began to weaken, which cannot but cause our concern. In particular, the entire 2023 in the religious sphere of our country passed under the sign of pressure on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Among our believers these events caused unpleasant and bitter surprise with misunderstanding of these actions, because by putting pressure on the Church, thereby putting pressure on its own citizens, who are both believers of the Church and part of Ukrainian society. All this certainly does not contribute to the unity and consolidation of our people, of which our Church is a traditional and integral part«, — reads the congratulatory message.

The Primate of the UOC is convinced that only through joint consolidation, Ukrainian society will be able to overcome all the difficulties and challenges it is facing now.

«History also teaches us that only a nation in unity wins, and even if it suffers defeat, it is preserved in history. We know nations that for many centuries have not had their own independence, have been enslaved, but, being internally united, have returned to the stage of world history, fighting for their independence. It is now that we are experiencing a historical moment when Ukraine especially needs such unity. I believe that in order to resist the dangers of statehood, we must defeat the thinking that divides Ukrainians and affirm the forces that promote the establishment of Ukraine as unity in diversity«, — Metropolitan Onuphrius said.

It is worth noting that employees of the Ukrainian SSRF started to actively justify themselves about the accusations of persecution of the UOC at the state level. Earlier, the head of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethno-politics and Freedom of Conscience, Viktor Yelenskyy, said at a meeting at the Ukrainian Media Center on the occasion of World Religion Day that today religious freedom in Ukraine is not a slogan, it is embodied in life and is an unprecedented example of cooperation between different religious organizations for the modern world.