In the Rivne region, the authorities under the order to require signatures on a petition to Archbishop Bartholomew
The authorities of Rivne region forced local residents to sign a petition to the Metropolitan of Rivne and Ostrog Bartholomew to support EPTS.
In the Rivne region, chairmen of district state administrations forced local residents to write letters to the Metropolitan of Rivne and Ostrog Bartholomew, to force him to participate in the unification Council, which will consider the issue of creating national Church in Ukraine. About it the correspondent of the SPM.
A letter with relevant content on the signature fell into the hands of one caring faithful of the UOC, which does not want to call it, because it is official. According to her, during the week the President Zdolbuniv RGA summoned the heads of local village councils and gives the order, according to which every head of the village should write the letter with appropriate content from their community and endorse it to a certain number of signatures.
The same treatment also recorded in Goshcha and Ostrog districts of Rivne region.
“In our country the separation of Church and state and the interference of officials in Church Affairs is a gross violation of the Constitution of Ukraine, – commented Vladyka Pimen, vicar of the diocese of Rivne of the UOC. – I respect the President and the Government of Ukraine, pray for them, however, those actions that bring even more confusion in a society that does not understand. In addition, people who are not Orthodox, are unable to participate in the establishment of the Local Church and dictate the rules”.
From unofficial sources it became known that the security Service of Ukraine is preparing a series of provocations in the region. In particular, the media has printed a number of custom-made articles aimed at discrediting the clergy of the diocese of Rivne of the UOC. Further, at the direction of the chief of the security service of Ukraine in Rivne region Badriya V. V., will be organized pickets, and possibly attacks on monasteries and private Rivne Sarny parishes and dioceses.
Earlier in Zhytomyr, the local authorities wrote a call to the hierarchs of the UOC to support the establishment of autocephaly. As reported by the SPM, the head of the Legal Department of the UOC Archpriest Oleksandr bakhov said that today bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church want to be forced to participate in the “unification Council”.