No need to build "Potemkin villages" for Phanar in Kiev, – UOC

Press conference of the UOC in the UNIAN agency on July 25

The Kiev "patriarchate", using the administrative resource, gathers people for a procession in Kiev for Phanar, reported the deputy head of the UOC DECR Protopriest Nikolai Danilevich at the UNIAN press conference on July 25. 

"There is no need to take extras to Kiev," said Protopriest Nikolai Danilevich. "There is no need to create "Potemkin villages" to show to the Patriarch of Constantinople those supposedly millions of believers who favour autocephaly."

According to Fr. Nikolai, Patriarch Bartholomew is informed of that.

"This information on the administrative pressure, to put it mildly, the assistance and gathering of state employees and other secular people for the "cross procession" of the Kiev Patriarchate are already on the Greek Internet," said Protopriest Nikolai. "And I will repeat that I know that this information is shared with Patriarch Bartholomew. I would like to say that the authorities shouldn’t do this, because, in fact, those addressees targeted know about it anyway. And when they view photos or videos from the "cross procession", they will still divide it into ten."

The deputy head of the UOC DECR stressed that this is a cross procession for believers, so let church-goers who want to pray come, but not extras.

"If the Kiev "patriarchate" has ten parishioners in Glukhov, then let them bring ten rather than one hundred. It is necessary, if you express yourself in a secular way, to play fair," concluded Protopriest Nikolai.

Earlier, Metropolitan Luke (Kovalenko) of Zaporozhye and Melitopol said that civil servants force believers to attend events of the Kiev Patriarchate, which will be held in the capital on occasion of the Baptism of Rus. An expert on religion in Ukraine, Alexander Yermolenko commented on this information, saying that the administrative resource was used Ukraine-wide because the authorities are faced with the task of "ensuring the number of people in the UOC KP procession".

Read also

In Ukraine, Trump’s 'spiritual advisor' reassured of religious freedom

Pastor Mark Burns stated that Ukraine, despite the war, is a "beacon of religious freedom."