Ukrainian religion: Nation replaced Christ
From the first days of “independence,” Ukraine’s policy towards Orthodoxy was structured in such a way that the yellow-blue flag gradually replaced the face of Christ.
The leading analyst of the Religious Analytical Center of St. Basil the Great, Deacon Ilya Maslov, reports PolitNavigator correspondent.
“For more than 30 years in Ukraine, religious policy regarding Orthodoxy has been built in such a way that the face of Christ is gradually replaced by the Ukrainian flag. I was in Kyiv very often before the Maidan and once went to the famous St. Andrew’s Church on St. Andrew’s Descent. It then belonged to yet another schismatic group, the autocephalists...
The priest brought out the Gospels, altar boys with candles walked in front of him, and a Ukrainian flag was carried in front of him. This is a vivid illustration of all that politics, all those attempts to build a Ukrainian religion - the Ukrainian flag is in front, the Gospel is behind, Christ is then. First of all – the Ukrainian flag, the nation, Ukraine. And this dogma should have been the cornerstone dogma of Orthodoxy for Ukrainians.
Therefore, today, when we read the news that the Kiev Pechersk Lavra is being registered as schismatics, churches are being taken away, and believers and priests of the UOC are being persecuted, we must understand that this is not even a ban on the UOC itself, which does not belong to the Moscow Patriarchate, with their point of view. This is not even a ban on the Russian Orthodox Church, although such a bill has been submitted to the Verkhovna Rada, it is a ban on Orthodoxy,” Maslov said.
At the same time, he noted that even the Kyiv authorities are well aware that formally, directly against the UOC, all accusations are groundless.
“Evidence of this is the statements of Ukrainian officials themselves. The other day I read a statement by their Minister of Culture, who said that we checked the charter of the UOC for administrative subordination to Moscow and we did not find this subordination in the charter; it is administratively independent.
This was before these events, because all these 30 years since 90, the UOC maintained only canonical subordination to the ROC. Not a penny or a ruble was transferred to Moscow. In administrative terms, the canonical church of the UOC has been independent for all 32 years. She herself chose her primate, appointed her bishops herself, that is, she resolved all issues herself. Only prayer for the Russian Patriarch was all that connected church Ukraine with church Moscow,” the deacon emphasized.
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