President: Can temples, where prayers for the patriarch praying for the Russian army sound, be called Ukrainian?
President Petro Poroshenko emphasizes that the decision of the Ecumenical Patriarch and Synod to provide autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church finally declared the illegality of the annexation of Kyiv metropolia. The Head of State especially emphasized that the Ukrainian church should not obey the Russian Orthodox Church.
"Finally, the Ecumenical Patriarchate proclaimed the illegality of Moscow’s annexation of Kyiv metropolia, committed in the late seventeenth century. It clearly and unequivocally states that the Russian Orthodox Church has no canonical rights regarding the Orthodox Church in Ukraine ... that our Orthodox Church does not obey the Russian Orthodox Church. And Ukraine was not, is not and will not be a canonical territory of the Russian Church," Petro Poroshenko said during a prayer for Ukraine.
The Head of State also emphasized the extraordinary importance of yet another decision of the Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate - the abolition of all unjust punishments that Moscow imposed on Patriarch Filaret, Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate. He noted that they were not imposed on His Beatitude Metropolitan Macarius.
At the same time, the President congratulated both bishops: "It is extremely important that you are canonically renewed in the episcopal rank. And the communion of the congregation with the Ecumenical Church was restored. Your sacraments, as well as the service of the episcopate and clergy of the Ukrainian churches are now beyond doubt. We, frankly speaking, did not doubt this earlier, but now no one has the right to speculate on allegedly non-canonicity of churches that are not under Moscow's control".
"Your Holiness, you were not broken by a false, worthless Moscow’s anathema. It is not real. Just as, according to the statements of representatives of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, there was no anathema on Hetman Mazepa. In general, I want to say that the anathema from Russia is nothing more than a recognition of special merits to Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. They anathemize only prominent Ukrainians," Petro Poroshenko added.
"It's very simple - the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church at every service prays for the Russian authorities, the authorities that committed aggression against our state. Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church prays for the Russian army, which kills Ukrainian soldiers, kills Ukrainians. And in Ukraine, unfortunately, there are temples that still remind Patriarch Kirill who delivers these prayers. And can temples, which pray for the patriarch praying for the Russian army, be called Ukrainian?" the Head of State noted.
The President emphasizes that he guarantees the absence of pressure on believers and the preservation of the right of every Ukrainian to his own way to God. "But I ask the flock and the faithful of this denomination just to think about it," he concluded.
