Metropolitan Theodosius of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) has spent the last several years under constant pressure from the Ukrainian secret police, who have detained him on multiple occasions, raided his home and office four times, and issued bogus, politically motivated charges against him. Today he published an opinion article in the Times of London in which he denounces this campaign of persecution, which has recently been accelerated by the government’s passage of the controversial Bill 8371, which will allow the complete banning of the church and seizure of its properties.
An excerpt of the article below:
At every turn, our believers are insulted, threatened with physical violence, illegally dismissed from their jobs, sometimes forcibly deprived of the opportunity to pray even in private homes. This is not a casual campaign. Every layer of the state is involved in the constant and targeted repression of the church. There are repeated assaults on UOC parishes where believers are beaten, broken and mutilated. These attacks are routinely ignored by the police and security services or indeed, in many cases, are carried out by them.
I will be facing ever-more punitive measures from the government as a result of my faith and my willingness to speak out about their crimes against the church. Criminal proceedings are immediately initiated against those who dare to resist the religious cleansing. Five criminal cases have been brought against me for the sermons in which I comforted persecuted Christians and gave them hope for a just future.
I have been under house arrest for almost a year and a half and have faced internship in a detention centre three times. The secret police have searched my home four times, confiscated the statutory documents of my diocese and seized all the phones and computers.
False narratives about the UOC and, in particular, its priests are widely spread by those in authority. The campaign against us throws out fatuous allegations of “Moscow-FSB sect”, “spies in cassocks” and “enemies of the Ukrainian people masquerading as believers”.
This is pure manipulation by the Ukrainian authorities to portray us as an enemy within. The UOC has never been involved in politics or geopolitics and as a traditional church we have been solely focused on spiritual matters. We are citizens of Ukraine and our church is not an enemy of the Ukrainian state.