Kiev, October 22, 2015
The proposal of the “Kyiv Patriarchate” to the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church to celebrate services in disputed churches by turns is unacceptable, said Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich, deputy chairman of the Department for External Relations (DECR) of UOC MP, in his interview with the Argumenty I Fakty newspaper, reports Pravlife.org.
“Our Church disapproves of the idea of performing services alternately—this is the position of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry of Kiev and All the Ukraine. Our experience tells us that the practice of holding services by turns does not promote settlement of the conflict. It is better when each community builds a church for itself and the one helps it as far as possible,” the Church representative noted.
According to Archpriest Nikolai, confrontations between parishes crop up only in the villages that have only one church. In cities, where there are many churches, such problems do not arise.
“And, by the way, whenever representatives of the “Kyiv Patriarchate” are talking about alternate services, they should, first of all, make these steps themselves. But, for some reason, when recently a parish of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic (Uniate) Church in the Turylche village of the Ternopil region appealed to the “Kyiv Patriarchate” with such a request, it was turned down,” stressed vice-chairman of the UOC MP DECR.
In his interview the archpriest has emphasized that following the takeover of churches of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church the faithful continue attending services in adapted buildings or build new churches.
“That is why we are not afraid of these seizures, since they are taking only our walls, but not people. And walls without people are worth not much. Nevertheless, we will defend each church on the basis of the current legislation of the Ukraine. I believe that in the present situation the interfaith conflicts should be resolved exclusively on the legal basis,” Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich said.
At the present time, he added, the lawyers are working with each individual case of violation of rights of the communities, including the incidents in Katerinovka and Kolosova in the Ternopil region.
“There were problems in the Pticha village of the Rivne region, but the problem there has already been solved judicially. The court confirmed the rights of UOC MP believers, and their church was returned to them. I feel certain that it is always possible to come to an agreement without court—only showing respect toward each other,” Archpriest Nikolai said in conclusion.
