Defense of The Faith
A Cassock Is Not a Uniform
The continued forced conscription of UOC clergy disregards a vocation that the state neither grants nor has the authority to redefine.
A month ago, I wrote about the forcible conscription of clerics of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) into the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). Seven cases from across the country were highlighted, all having taken place within a month’s time. Relevant Church canons forbidding servants of God’s altar from bearing arms or taking a life were also mentioned. If you have not had a chance to read that article yet, I recommend it for context.
Touching on these cases is important. When we advocate for the canonical UOC and encourage our elected officials (and the media) to call attention to the persecution being committed by the Zelenskyy government, it helps to put faces to the issue. There is also a chance of saving some of these clerics from losing their lives – or their priesthoods – as we will see below. First, the latest victims of forced conscription:
