The State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) reminded the bishops of the UOC (MP) to monitor the observance of Ukraine’s legislation in churches they operate.
The DESS drew the attention of the UOC to the fact that it is important for every bishop to ask himself whether in any of the UOC churches under his control:
anyone commemorates Patriarch Kirill as a prominent patriarch for the UOC;
anyone spreads absurd Kremlin literature that has no place in churches (for example, claiming the “decay of the West”);
anyone reproduces the narratives generated by Moscow’s imperial ambitions;
the content of sermons and hymns hurts people’s feelings amid Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine and the aggression that has been going on since 2014?
“It is important for everyone to realize and remember that the narratives of the Russian Federation, which accompany Russia’s armed aggression and crimes committed in Ukraine, are dangerous for Ukraine and the rest of the world, and that they had been established and formed long before the invasion,” the DESS said in the statement.
They include, in particular, the following elements:
superiority of Russian identity and culture over others;
denying the sovereignty of Ukraine, Ukrainian civil and ethnic identity, Ukrainian language and positioning them as a component of Russian identity and a dialect of the Russian language;
the borderless Russian world, which is present everywhere where the Russian language is used;
the conspiracy of the West to weaken and destroy Russia, in particular by extending its influence over Ukraine, hence Russia’s right to invade Ukraine and other countries;
representation of Ukraine and the West as territories saturated with violence, injustice, and evil, from which Russia must save everyone;
Russia’s mission to save the world from moral decay;
those who express opposition to the ideas outlined above and oppose them are accused of “Russophobia”, presented at least as victims of disinformation or as enemies and Nazis who must be destroyed.
“Behind these narratives lies terrible violence, a calamity of death and destruction. They have no place in Ukraine, they have no place in any corner of the civilized world,” the agency said.
