Rivne parishioner: I went to the UOC-KP for 27 years, but my eyes opened now

Parishioner of the UOC Valentyna Demyanchuk from Rivne. Photo: screenshot of the 1Kozak YouTube channel

The President of Ukraine must protect 6 million believers of the UOC from monstrous religious terror, said Valentyna, a parishioner of the Rivne diocese, in an address to Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

According to her, for a quarter of a century she prayed in the churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate, but as soon as the UOC was subjected to repression, her eyes opened to the reality and she stood up for canonical Orthodoxy.

“Where is our Constitution, and who will protect us? Where is the freedom of religion in our native country? Why is only our Church persecuted? Why are you targeting us? For the fact that we pray in the Old Slavonic language?” the 1Kozak conveys her words.

Valentyna noted that even at the beginning of hostilities, the UOC condemned the war and renounced all ties with Russia. At the same time, she does not understand why “people in masks” can arbitrarily break into the cells, take pictures of the monks and then mix them with dirt:

“Thousands of our parishioners are on the front line, fighting and dying for Ukraine. But they do not know what they are fighting for now that the authorities are taking away their freedom and faith. We pray for Ukraine, for its authorities, for soldiers, regardless of their religion.”

The woman suggested that the Ukrainian special services check the temples of the OCU for "traitors to the Motherland", because there could be quite a lot of them there.

“They pray in pure Ukrainian and then stab you in the back with a knife. Think about it, says the parishioner. “I have always dreamed of uniting our Churches, but now I see that it is impossible to unite the incompatible.”

As the UOJ reported earlier, Anna, a parishioner of the UOC, appealed to the President of Ukraine with a demand to stop the merciless repressions against Orthodoxy.

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