To sign the petition against persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, click here or scroll down. To read the petition verbiage, click here or scroll down. To see the list of signatures, please click here, or scroll down. To view organizations who have received the petition so far, click here. For media links to coverage of the petition effort (that we know of), click here.
Many government officials and commentators in Ukraine claim that the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church is a foreign church collaborating with Russia and undermining the Ukrainian war effort. These accusations fuel an increasing persecution that threatens to end with a complete ban on the UOC's very existence. Local bans have already been enacted, and a vote on a national one is likely to happen soon. As an example of local persecution, at a meeting on March 2nd, 65 deputies of the Kiev City Council condemned the activities of the UOC, accusing the Church of a number of state crimes, and adopted a decision forbidding the UOC from holding events outside her churches. Further, relevant departments were instructed to check communal property and land used by religious organizations.
Vadym Vasylchuk, a member of the Holos faction in the city council, spewed these charges at the meeting, "The activities of the UOC-MP create the prerequisites for hostility and intolerance towards other faiths and confessions, promote the spread of false information, promote the ideas of the 'Russian world' and do not recognize the unequivocal fact of the military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine."
The UOC has been subject to persecution since the 2018 founding of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine (OCU), but nothing like this. Violent seizures of parishes and monasteries, attacks on clergy and parishioners, intrusive searches by police of holy sites, planting of evidence to prove "collusion" with the Russians, and now even an outright, total ban of the UOC. (More information on the persecution of the UOC can be found here.)
The persecution is unjust, immoral, and illogical. The UOC is comprised of Ukrainians, led by Ukrainian bishops, and supports the Ukrainian war effort. According to official data, the church renders great assistance to the army, internally displaced persons, and the needy. The UOC assistance to the army has reached nearly a million dollars, and more than 180 tons of humanitarian aid have been delivered for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Hugely impressive numbers given that people in Ukraine are the poorest in Europe. In addition, at the UOC's main council in May 2022, a number of decisions were adopted to break off all remaining ties with the Russian Orthodox Church.
There is no truth to any of the charges against the UOC. The heavy persecution, despite the Church's efforts in support of the war and her innocence of any Russian collusion, leaves the Ukrainian members of the UOC bewildered. They cannot understand why all this is happening or what can be done about it. One heartbroken Ukrainian commenter on Orthodox Reflections put the situation in perspective:
Я підтримую УПЦ. I am the member of Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Now our church helps our army and people. Our Church and we pray for our country and soldiers. And it's very terrible that the government of Ukraine doesn't see our efforts and persecute our church. Please help us to protect our Church and Metropolitan Onufrii. Please let the world know about this problem and help us. I want to thank to everybody who supports our Church and to thank to everybody who created this petition. God will help all of you!
Persecuting the UOC does not help Ukraine's war effort. In fact, it harms it. The UOC has not been helping the Russians. Rather it has been helping the Ukrainian people and Army. Anything that hurts the UOC makes it difficult for her to minister to those in need. Prior to the war, over 70% of the population of Ukraine belonged to the UOC. There is no way to know how many Ukrainians still belong to the UOC versus the OCU, but it is still a substantial number. Persecuting the UOC means causing disunity among the Ukrainian people. Disunity is the last thing the Ukrainian Government wants to provoke in a population suffering this badly.
The Ukrainian Government understood this at first. For the first six months of the war, Zelenskyy and Ukrainian officials emphasized that the UOC is a Ukrainian Church on the side of its people. It was only towards the end of 2022 that the Ukrainian Government severely turned on the UOC. The activities of the UOC did not change, so why is this persecution happening?
More than one reason. The first is politics. The Orthodox Church in Ukraine exists because of Petro Poroshenko's presidential campaign. His platform was "army, language, faith." He went to Istanbul to Patriarch Bartholomew and requested a tomos of autocephaly for the unrecognized, schismatic Ukrainian "churches" - the UOC-KP and the UAOC. At the same time, pressure was put on the UOC to join these breakaway structures. The UOC refused to cave, and so the OCU was born outside the canonical Church by the will of Patriarch Bartholomew. The US and its Western allies supported the move. To support the effort, Poroshenko began a campaign throughout the media calling the UOC the "Moscow Church" and the OCU the "Ukrainian," even though there are only Ukrainians in both. (This smear campaign continues to this day.) Poroshenko's government then started seizing Churches and giving them to the OCU. Ukrainian news reports in 2019 were full of photos and videos where church doors were broken open to forcibly change ownership. Things eased up some after Zelenskyy came into office, as he promised to stay out of Church affairs. Only now, things have gotten worse than ever.
OCU is a political creation. When it came into being, 70% of the population of Ukraine belonged to the UOC, which was already self-governing, and saw no need for another Orthodox Church. But OCU is popular with the ultranationalists who are Zelenskyy's base of support. No doubt the radicals feel that getting rid of the UOC will bolster their preferred church by removing any competition. Plus, the OCU itself has endorsed the persecution of its rival:
Therefore, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine supports the need to introduce a legislative ban on subordination (affiliation) of religious organizations in Ukraine to religious associations in the aggressor country - the Russian Federation. Such a ban does not concern freedom of religion and belief, but only administrative and legal issues. In conditions where the threat from the aggressor country's use of pseudo-religious motivation and the administrative influence of Russian religious centers on religious organizations in Ukraine is quite real and poses a significant danger to the rights and freedoms of all citizens of Ukraine, to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our state, the establishment of legislative restrictions on the subordination of religious organizations in Ukraine to the Russian religious association is a democratic and necessary reaction to aggression.
The US government has a policy of supporting the OCU, and is continuously pressuring Orthodox Churches around the world to recognize it. Is the US government, on which the Ukrainian State is wholly and completely dependent for financing, in favor of persecuting the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church? Given the centrality of US influence in founding and nurturing the OCU, it is not unreasonable to assume that "knocking out" the spiritual competition would be popular in important Washingtonian circles.
Besides politics and international relations, the persecution of the UOC is likely a way to distract the Ukrainians from their misery. The war is going badly for Ukraine. The losses have been extremely high. Much infrastructure has been destroyed. The property damage is in the billions of dollars. Ukraine's economy is practically non-existent. Naturally, many Ukrainians are angry and wish to hit back at Russia. Only their military can't accomplish that for them. If you can't get your revenge on actual Russians, why not strike at the "Russian Church" in your midst? For the Ukrainian Government, this is an opportunity to give a segment of its population a common enemy they can actually reach.
Who cares if the whole campaign of terror is based on lies and directed at fellow Ukrainians? Why let facts get in the way of a good witch hunt?
The faithful Orthodox Christians of the UOC need our help. They have suffered enough. The UOC is not a Russian institution. It is Ukrainian to the core. There is no justification for this immoral and unjust persecution. It is driven by politics and foreign meddling. It must stop. Those of us in the West, particularly Americans, must raise our voices to demand an end to it.
Please join the over 3,000 concerned people from around the globe in signing the petition below demanding an end to the persecution of the UOC. To sign the petition against persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, click here or scroll down. To read the petition verbiage, click here or scroll down. To see the list of signatures, please click here, or scroll down. To view organizations who have received the petition so far, click here. For media links to coverage of the petition effort (that we know of), click here.
Petition to End the Silence on Christian Persecution in Ukraine
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is the canonical church in Ukraine headed by Metropolitan Onuphry. Prior to the war, approximately 70% of the population of Ukraine belonged to the UOC. Ukrainians overwhelmingly supported their Church, despite having been subjected to politically motivated persecution for many years. The violations of human rights directed at Orthodox Christians in Ukraine have included: forcible seizure / closure of parishes, unlawful arrests, physical abuse, abusive searches of holy sites, desecrations of holy objects, intentional targeting of parishes and holy sites for military attack, and acts of physical intimidation. Recently, local governments have banned the Ukrainian Church from even operating in their areas. President Zelensky of Ukraine has threatened to make this ban nationwide. The main churches of Kiev Caves Lavra have been removed from UOC jurisdiction, and schismatics have been allowed to use them for services.
We, the undersigned Orthodox Christians and allied Christians of good conscience, note three things. First, the situation in Ukraine is unjustified Christian persecution that violates all global norms. Second, the Ukrainian Government is wholly dependent on Western financial and military support for its continued existence. Therefore, Christians in the West bear a substantial responsibility to speak for the Ukrainian victims of persecution. Third, protests from official organizations matter more to those in power than collections of citizens.
Therefore, we signers of this petition call upon the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America, all Orthodox jurisdictions in the West, all official Orthodox Christian ministries and institutions of higher education, all human rights organizations, the Roman Catholic Church, all other Christian bodies of good will, and any other concerned organizations to immediately draft statements decrying the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and demanding its immediate cessation. We cannot be silent in the face of Christian persecution enabled by our own governments. Please join us in ending the persecution of the Body of Christ in Ukraine.
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