OCU representative urges UOC clergy in Rivne region to “come to their senses” and join the OCU
The head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) in the Rivne region, Metropolitan Illarion Protsyk, addressed the clergy and faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) with a call to leave the UOC’s jurisdiction and “join” the OCU. The appeal followed the publication of findings by the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (SSEFC), which claimed to have found “signs of affiliation” between the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC and the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). The statement was published by the Rivne Diocese of the OCU.
According to the hierarch, these conclusions confirm that the UOC “remains part of the Russian Orthodox Church,” which he accused of supporting Russian aggression: “It is part of a religious structure that openly and shamelessly supports Russian aggression against Ukraine, blesses the occupiers, and spiritually justifies the genocide of our people.”
“I appeal to all priests and laypeople who still remain under the structures affiliated with Moscow: come to your senses. The Church is not about papers and titles. It is the living Body of Christ, which cannot be divided between truth and falsehood, between freedom and slavery, between Ukraine and the ‘Russian world,’” said the OCU representative.
Illarion Protsyk expressed confidence that his organization “does not divide people into ‘ours’ and ‘theirs’” and is open to “dialogue, reconciliation, and unity.”
“But we can no longer turn a blind eye to the facts that point to a direct threat to the spiritual, cultural, and national future of Ukraine,” the cleric emphasized, calling for “genuine unity.”
Earlier, we reported that the head of the Rivne Diocese of the OCU, Illarion Protsyk, urged the clergy and faithful of the UOC in the region to “truly break away from Moscow” and join the Ukrainian schism. According to him, the 2022 UOC Council in Feofaniya introduced only cosmetic changes to the Church Statute while remaining subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate.
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