Statement of the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine regarding the protection of religious freedom and opposition to the use of religious institutions by the aggressor Russian state
Adopted at the meeting of the Holy Synod
on March 7, 2024
Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
Protection of religious freedom
The Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Orthodox Church of Ukraine) certifies that the Russian state, which as a result of an armed invasion temporarily occupied part of the territory of Ukraine, is responsible for the systematic violation of basic human rights and freedoms in the occupied territories, including the actual disregard of the right to freedom of conscience and religion. Refusal of Ukrainian clergymen and faithful who found themselves in the occupation to cooperate with the Russian authorities, to comply with its lawless demands, results in a ban on the activities of religious organizations, persecution and terror against clergymen and active members of communities, including kidnapping, arrests, torture and other acts physical and psychological violence, imprisonment, deportation.
The murder of archpriest Stepan Yaroslavovych Podolchak, head of the parish of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in the village of Kalanchak, Skadovsky district, Kherson region, who was tortured to death by the Russian occupiers, resonated with deep pain in our hearts. On February 13, 2024, he was abducted by occupiers from his apartment, and on February 15, his wife was called to identify the body of the murdered person. During the previous time, representatives of the occupation authorities repeatedly terrorized the priest and the community, demanded their transfer to the jurisdiction of the Russian Patriarchate.
Numerous acts of terror, intimidation, persecution, torture or threats of torture and other types of systematic violations of basic human rights in the occupied territories are committed by the Russian occupiers not only against clergymen of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and members of their families, active members of communities. Almost all ministers and faithful of Ukrainian religious communities who do not publicly approve of the Russian occupation of Ukrainian lands are subjected to them. This is stated by representatives of Ukrainian Catholic communities of the Eastern and Latin rites, Protestant and Evangelical associations, Muslim and Jewish communities. These facts are recorded in the documents of independent human rights organizations, in particular the Institute of Religious Freedom (Kyiv).
Part of the policy of systematic oppression of religious freedom in the Ukrainian lands temporarily occupied by the Russian state is the forced decision to change the jurisdiction of Orthodox religious communities and include them directly in the structures of the Russian Orthodox Church with direct subordination to the Moscow Patriarchate, and not to the Metropolis in Kyiv, which is headed by Metropolitan Onufry (Berezovsky). A similar practice regarding the forced inclusion of Ukrainian religious communities and associations in Russian religious structures is carried out in relation to other confessions.
The Moscow Patriarchate and its head Kirill (Volodymyr Gundyaev) are jointly responsible for Russian terror and religious persecution in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. After all, they systematically publicly support, approve, bless, encourage and justify the aggressive policy of the Kremlin regime, Russian war crimes on Ukrainian soil. In fact, the structure of the Moscow Patriarchate, as well as the structures of other main religious associations in the Russian state, have become part of the state apparatus, are completely dependent on the Russian government and carry out its criminal orders.
The Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine continues to insist on the need for broad international and religious, as well as public and state condemnation, both of the very practice of the full integration of the main Russian religious associations into the structure of the Kremlin dictatorship and their encouragement and justification of the crimes of this terrorist regime, as well as those specifically guilty of this persons Its current head Kyril (Voladymyr Gundyaev) is subject to international sanctions, condemnation and deprivation of the patriarchal throne of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Moscow Patriarchate should be condemned internationally for aiding the crimes of the Russian state, as was condemned the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa, which supported the criminal system of apartheid in that country, as well as the German denominations, which supported and justified the Nazi regime.
Taking into account all this, and also taking into account the indisputable fact that the main religious associations in the Russian state de facto both at the level of the governing structures and at the level of their leaders personally are fully integrated into the system of the Russian totalitarian government, conducting its criminal policy as in the country itself, and beyond its borders, in particular, they contribute to, encourage and justify Russian military aggression against Ukraine – it is the moral duty of believers and religious communities in Ukraine to completely get rid of any subordination to these Russian de facto state structures. First of all, this concerns the subordination of Ukrainian Orthodox communities to the structure of the Russian Orthodox Church. Further stay under the authority of the Moscow Patriarchate is moral complicity in its sins and crimes, harming both the Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian people.
Therefore, we call on all Orthodox communities in Ukraine, which until now, for any reason, still retain their affiliation with the structures of the Moscow Patriarchate, which continue to recognize Cyril (Volodymyr Gundyaev) as their patriarch and as their religious superior, and not as a lost sinner and lawless one, to glorify him at their religious services – to stop it as soon as possible. May Gundyaev and the patriarchy headed by him be “like a pagan and a publican” (Matthew 18:17) for all Orthodox Christians in Ukraine.
As the Holy Synod of the local Orthodox Church of Ukraine, we once again certify that the Moscow Patriarchate and any of its structures and representatives have no canonical authority and jurisdiction in Ukraine. Therefore, no excommunications, bans, decisions on deprivation of dignity or other similar actions issued by the hierarchs of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine against the clergy and faithful who wish to leave the Russian church jurisdiction and follow the Tomos on autocephaly and join the family of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine – from the beginning have no neither of reality, nor of canonical force, nor of any significance.
On the contrary, bishops and clerics who subject the Orthodox Ukrainian faithful to persecution and intimidate them with their prohibitions, thus forcing them to remain in non-canonical subordination to the Moscow Patriarchate, are themselves subject to church condemnation as violators of the truth, canonical order and rules.
Taking into account all this, the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine supports the decision of the Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to submit for final approval by the Ukrainian Parliament the government draft law No. 8371, adopted in the first reading, on the prohibition of subordination of any Ukrainian religious organizations to Russian religious ones, and de facto – to state centers. This government bill in no way limits the right to freedom of religion and does not hinder the activities of religious communities, but it protects religious freedom in Ukraine from hostile Russian state influence and from the use of religious structures of the aggressor country as instruments of such influence. Such a position has also been repeatedly publicly supported by the religious community of Ukraine – Christian, Muslim and Jewish religious associations.
The Holy Synod of the OCU calls on the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to adopt draft law No. 8371 as soon as possible in the second reading and as a whole, and the President of Ukraine to sign it.
God the Great, the One, save Ukraine for us!
Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine Epiphanius
Metropolitan of Lviv Makarius
Metropolitan of Vinnytsia and Bar Simeon
Metropolitan of Galicia Andriy
Metropolitan of Lviv and Sokal Dimitriy
Metropolitan of Cherkasy and Chigyrin Ioan
Archbishop of Vyshgorod Agapit
Bishop of Uzhgorod and Khust Kirill
Bishop of Donetsk and Slovyan Sava
Bishop of Kherson and Tavria Nikodim
Bishop of Chernivtsi and Feognost of Bukovyna,
Bishop of Chernihiv and Nizhyn Anthony
