Authorities of Kherson whip people to KP procession in Kiev, – UOC cleric

"Religious procession" of the UOC-KP on the Day of the Rus Baptism in 2017

The authorities actively got down to the preparation of visits of parishioners of the Kyiv Patriarchate to events on the occasion of the Baptism Day of Rus. About this priest of the UOC Gennady Shkil wrote on his Facebook page.

"I was in Kherson and received confirmation from some sources that the regional administration had allocated free buses for the UOC-KP (while the KP “priests” have been calling their parishioners to have free trips for a few days to Kiev) so that they could go to the “religious procession” organized by the UOC KP,” said the priest. “By all accounts executives have been tasked to "persuade" their employees to take part in this ‘event’."

According to Father Gennady, pilgrims have always paid for their travel when going to the processions organized by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

"This year, for example, pilgrims are going to pay from 400 to 500 UAH of their "hard-earned money" to take part in the religious procession. At the moment all places in many buses are fully booked. In our deanery, 12 people from one small village are going to take part!!!” Father Gennady reported.

To all those who are forcibly driven to the "cross procession" of the KP, the priest advised not to get involved in the deception, but rather go to the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra and revere the shrines that will be specially brought to Kiev on the Day of the Rus Baptism.

Earlier, Metropolitan Luke (Kovalenko) of Zaporozhye and Melitopol said that civil servants forced believers to attend events of the Kyiv Patriarchate, which will be held in the capital in honor of the Baptism of Rus. An expert on religion in Ukraine, Alexander Yermolenko commented on this information, saying that the administrative resource has been employed throughout Ukraine, because the authorities are faced with the task of "ensuring the size of the procession of the UOC-KP supporters."

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