Met. Luke: How exactly does the aggressor country manage my eparchy?

Metropolitan Luke. Photo: UOC press service

Metropolitan Luke, the ruling bishop of the Zaporizhzhia Eaprchy, addressed the judges of the Zaporizhzhia District Court on his Telegram channel, demanding that they provide evidence of the "anti-state activities" of the Zaporizhzhia Eparchy of the UOC.

The bishop recalled that on July 2, the Zaporizhzhia City Council adopted an illegal decision (No. 70) to break relations with religious organizations of the UOC of the "Moscow Patriarchate", targeting the Zaporizhzhia Eparchy.

"The first paragraph of this decision states that the governing centre of our eparchy is located in an aggressor country. With this decision, the Zaporizhzhia City Council agreed with the slander that is being spread by the media today. I understand the motives of the City Council's decision. They don't necessarily have to know what is written in our Statute (official document). They have other tasks," the hierarch wrote, adding that the eparchy filed a lawsuit against this decision "with the hope that there are still laws in our society".

"But the judge hastened to assure us of the opposite," he noted. "No, laws do not work in our country; lawlessness rules it. Articles 21, 24, and 34 of the Constitution of Ukraine no longer have any meaning. Despite the fact that not a single court in the country recognized the UOC as an 'organization that threatens or undermines the national security of Ukraine', the Zaporizhzhia District Administrative Court denied our application."

Met. Luke requested the judge to provide "facts of our 'anti-state activities'". The hierarch asked the court, "How exactly is the Zaporizhzhia diocese being managed by the aggressor country? What are the levers and mechanisms of this management? On what grounds did the City Council decide that the aggressor country has any relation to us?"

Metropolitan Luke reminded that the eparchy’s parishioners raised millions of hryvnias to purchase medical equipment, donated four and a half thousand litres of blood, helped a military hospital and refugees, and some of their parishioners are fighting on the frontlines. He questioned, "By what right do the deputies of the Zaporizhzhia City Council slander and lie about our parishioners?"

"As a response, the judge found nothing better than to rewrite the City Council's decision, based on false propaganda slogans, as an argument for refusal!!! That is, no fact-checking regarding the adopted ruling was carried out because everyone understands – there are no such facts and cannot be any," Metropolitan Luka concluded.

Earlier, the court upheld the Zaporizhzhia City Council's decision to break relations with the UOC.

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