Prayer standing of the UOC: where Zelensky spotted “grandmothers in yellow caps”

Believers from different dioceses of the UOC gathered on June 15 at the walls of the Verkhovna Rada and handed over to parliamentarians an appeal to stop the persecution of the Church. Then the laity walked to the building of the Office of the President of Ukraine. The initiator of the action was the public association of believers “Laity”.

Participants in the prayer meeting also handed over to the Rada deputies and the president two bills on the repeal of anti-church laws No. 2662-VIII (on forced renaming) and 2673-VIII (for church raiders), adopted under the previous president ( Poroshenko ).

Believers of the persecuted Ukrainian Orthodox Church came to pray at Zelensky's Office

UOC MP website

“As the believers explained, these laws contradict the requirements of Article 35 of the Constitution of Ukraine, violate freedom of religion and discriminate against citizens of Ukraine who belong to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, violate civil peace and distort the international image of the country,” reports the Information and Educational Department of the UOC.

As the initiators of the action noted, thousands of parishioners of the UOC suffer from violations of rights, incitement to hatred and seizures of churches.

“Anti-church laws played a significant role in these processes. Believers of the UOC are outraged not only that these laws were adopted at all, but also that the new president and parliament have not gotten rid of this legacy of P. Poroshenko’s regime.

The laws are still in effect. The rights of the UOC are violated, while another denomination, also created under Poroshenko (OCU - Ed.), is being promoted in every possible way by state bodies contrary to the Constitution,” the press service of the UOC quotes the words of the initiators.

"The Invisible Majority" Orthodox Christians in Ukraine are called to wake up

RIA Novosti, Stringer / Go to photobank
During the transmission of the appeal to a representative of the Presidential Office, Archbishop Nikolai noted that many believers voted for Zelensky and had great hopes for him.
“First of all, we wanted peace in Ukraine, we wanted the violence against the UOC to stop, we hoped that raider seizures of churches would become a thing of the past, we hoped that our communities throughout Ukraine would live and pray in peace and tranquility.

Our hopes have partially come true, but violence is still being committed against the religious communities of the UOC. We ask you, as your voters, as citizens of Ukraine, to repeal laws that commit violence against the UOC and contradict the Constitution of Ukraine.

We ask for the implementation of the Constitution. We ask you to withdraw the invitation of Patriarch Bartholomew - he is not the head of our Church, he is not even an official representative of the state from which he comes, he did not bring peace and unity to the Ukrainian Orthodox society,” the archbishop said.

The head of state, it seems, did not seriously delve into the problem. In his opinion, the rally was ordered - Zelensky linked its holding with the OPZH.

At the Ukraine 30 forum, Zelensky said: “Look what’s happening near the Verkhovna Rada today. I'm very sorry, there are grandmothers and children wearing yellow OPZH caps. Something is wrong in the church... And everyone is so concerned about this issue that by chance thousands of grandmothers came wearing yellow OPZH caps...”

How Zelensky almost took Brussels and Washington by storm

REUTERS, Gleb Garanich
Although everyone understands that the prayer meeting of believers of the UOC and the rallies of the OPZZh are different actions with different demands.
Well, this only shows that Bankova is not very concerned about peace issues, be it peace in Donbass or interfaith peace... In the association “Laity” they did not ignore this and decided to organize a protest flash mob.

“Considering that President Zelensky has distanced himself so much from the issues of the Church, he did not see today 20,000 laymen of the UOC of different ages, but only “grandmothers in yellow OPZH caps,” we need your help. To help him see the obvious,” says a message on the “Laity” telegram channel.

The organizers of the flash mob invited everyone to go together to Zelensky’s Facebook page and put there “links, videos and photos of prayer standing with the hashtag #grandmothers_in_caps and #yellow_caps + we urge you to take a closer look and apologize to thousands of believers of the UOC.”

In addition, believers are invited to publish photos and videos of prayer standing on their pages on social networks with a proposal to Zelensky to find “a granny in a yellow cap” there.

In Kyiv, believers of the UOC demanded that Zelensky stop persecuting the church

Today, a large prayer stand took place near the Verkhovna Rada. It was organized by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) , thus protesting against the policy of persecution of a religious organization. The event was also attended by journalists from Klymenko Time .

First of all, the massive scale of the action is striking. According to various estimates, about 20 thousand parishioners gathered for the prayer standing. They appealed to the deputies with a demand to stop the persecution of the canonical Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Moreover, an initiative group of believers prepared their own alternative bills on religious topics, which it was decided to hand over to the people’s representatives for review.

Source: Klymenko Time

“We are also citizens of Ukraine!”, “Stop the persecution of the church!”, “Let’s protect the UOC!”, “God is with us!”—with these and other slogans, UOC parishioners addressed the people’s deputies. They held a prayer stand, after which they moved in procession to the President’s Office - with the same demands. The head of state was given a collective appeal calling on him to stop the policy of infringing on the rights of parishioners of the UOC and the church itself. The religious procession was led by the vicar of the Kiev Metropolis, Bishop Nicholas.

Let us note that standing in prayer was associated, first of all, with the upcoming adoption of “anti-church laws.” We are talking about bills numbered 2662 and 2673. The first concerns the forced renaming of the UOC (they want to legislate the name “Moscow Patriarchate”), while the second deals with simplifying the seizure of churches, in fact, with church raiding.

“Millions of parishioners of the UOC suffer from violations of rights, incitement to hatred and seizures of churches. “Anti-church laws” played an important role in these processes. Believers of the UOC are outraged not only that these laws were adopted at all, but also that the new president and parliament have not gotten rid of this legacy of the Poroshenko regime,” says the press service of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Source: UOC Information Center

Let us remind you that this is not the first such action of believers of the canonical church. Earlier in April, a similar prayer stand was already held outside the walls of the President’s Office. Then representatives of the UOC community gave Zelensky a million (!) signatures of parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, who signed the call to stop the anti-church policy of Kyiv. However, this did not cause any special reaction from Bankova.

Previously, we examined how nationalists in Lviv threaten local Catholic leaders and force them to campaign against the UOC during services.

Did you like the material? Give it 5 stars. This is important for the author.

4.1 / 5 ( 21 voice )

Nikita Trachuk author

Share this post

Add Klymenko Time to your list of sources

WE - about the prayerful standing of the UOC-MP: “OPPL caught up with the grandmothers”

The meeting of believers of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), where parishioners and priests asked the President of Ukraine to protect canonical Orthodoxy from schismatics and neo-Nazis, these are “paid grandmothers.” Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky stated this directly.

In his opinion, the entire action was organized by the political party “Opposition Platform - For Life” (OPZZH), which, “pursuing its own selfish political goals, brought grandmothers and children to the Verkhovna Rada.”

“Something is wrong in the church... And everyone is so concerned about this issue that by chance thousands of grannies came wearing yellow OPZH caps. So what does it look like? Our task is to ensure that these grannies have enough money so that they do not go out. They lived life! We need to get away from poverty,” Zelensky said.

The statement of the head of state was commented on by Ukrainian church publicist Alexander Voznesensky .

“If earlier the person who holds the position of president simply ignored all the lawlessness in the country that was committed against the Church and did not want to hear the voice of believers, now this infidel openly mocks the Church,” he said.

According to Voznesensky, after everything that happened, there is only one version of events: the Church will openly and publicly make an appeal to believers to defend the Church through an open-ended protest in front of the president’s office, “so that corrupt officials begin to take into account the interests of millions of citizens of Ukraine who are in the UOC-MP.”

“If the Church swallows this, then repressions and crimes against the Church will only intensify. All the i's are dotted extremely frankly. The authorities openly express their hostility against the Church. Now the question is how the hierarchs and believers of the Church will react to the actions of this criminal government,” the publicist writes in his telegram channel “Religion and Politics.”

EADaily reminds: today, June 15, a delegation of thousands of canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Christians submitted millions of signatures to the president’s office with a request to repeal the Ukrainian legislation that discriminates against the UOC-MP. Neo-Nazis tried to intimidate and disperse the prayer stands of believers near the office of the President and the Verkhovna Rada, shouting: “Glory to the nation - death to the enemies!” and insulted believers. Numerous police officers and National Guardsmen on duty did not intervene in the incident.

The Zelensky administration has left in force the acts that discriminate against canonical Orthodoxy, which were adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Petro Poroshenko In December 2021, on the eve of the OCU receiving a tomos from Patriarch Bartholomew , Law No. 5309 was adopted. According to the law, the UOC MP is obliged to indicate in its charter and other documents that its governing body is located in the “aggressor country” - Russia. According to this law, the UOC-MP had to call itself “Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine.” If this requirement is evaded, the UOC-MP is subject to liquidation as a legal entity, its property is nationalized, and its activities are prohibited. Andrei Yurash , who hates canonical Orthodoxy, and the “little pig” sociologist Elena Bogdan (real name is Bogdanova ).

Prime Minister of Ukraine Denis Shmygal , when he visited the residence of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople in Istanbul in November 2020, promised Bartholomew a quick transfer of all parishes of the UOC-MP to the OCU. Let us remember that the real first hierarch of the OCU is Bartholomew, and not Epiphanius ( Dumenko ). Shmygal also invited Bartholomew to visit Ukraine on an archpastoral visit this year.

Speech by People's Deputy Vadim Novinsky after the prayer service of the UOC MP near the Verkhovna Rada.