The speaker of the UOC MP called Crimea “occupied, annexed, isolated territory”
Kyiv, July 28 (Navigator, Mikhail Ryabov) – The official speaker of the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate, Archpriest Georgy Kovalenko, called Crimea “occupied territory.”
He said this during a conference on the Glavred portal, answering a question about the conditions for the functioning of the UOC-MP in Crimea.
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“I don’t think it’s possible to call life and service in an occupied and isolated territory normal,” Kovalenko said.
“At the request of the new Crimean government, the dioceses of our Church translated their charters into Russian and retained the official name “diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.” Perhaps this is almost the only institution in Crimea that is not only called “Ukrainian”, but also has its center in Kyiv,” he added.
“The Patriarch and the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church after the annexation of Crimea stated that state borders and church borders should not always coincide. As a result, the Crimean dioceses continue to be under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” Kovalenko emphasized.
One of the readers also asked Kovalenko a question regarding the fact that representatives of the Odessa diocese held pro-Russian views and “sullied themselves by collaborating with the separatists.”
“The Ukrainian Orthodox Church condemned “political Orthodoxy” back in 2007. Among those deprived of church blessing were Odessa residents. Recently, in connection with the situation in the country, the Holy Synod once again recalled this and officially prohibited clergy from preaching any political ideas from the church pulpit, and also prohibited them from taking part in political actions and acts of civil disobedience. Unfortunately, some clergy (but they are an absolute minority in the Church) are more interested in politics than in preaching the Gospel,” said the speaker of the UOC-MP.
At the same time, Kovalenko himself appeared on the Euromaidan stage in the center of Kyiv on December 15 together with schismatics, Uniates and Catholics.
English version :: Read in English The speaker of the UOC MP called Crimea “occupied, annexed, isolated territory”