A peaceful transition, you say?
Today's storming of the cathedral in Cherkasy vividly demonstrated what "peaceful transitions" of churches to the OCU entail.
Another "peaceful transition" occurred last night in the absence of parishioners, as only masked militants were present during the transition. Instead of prayers, the song "Our Father Bandera..." echoed throughout the area, and instead of candles, there were gas pistols and axes. They beat the parishioners, priests, and Metropolitan Theodosius of Cherkasy. The invaders fired tear gas at the churchgoers. They looted the church treasury, stole icons and panagias. They acted like real bandits, barbarians, fearing neither God nor the Criminal Code.
Naturally! The police demonstratively remained inactive, while the mayor of the city actually called for the seizure of the cathedral. In bureaucratic language, this was referred to as "coming to pray in the Ukrainian language". And the height of hypocrisy was the mayor's statement that the community had voluntarily moved to the OCU. Why lie so shamelessly?! If it was voluntary, then why did they come at night? If it was voluntary, then why shoot at the believers? If it was voluntary, then why loot, commit outrages, etc.? Doesn’t this all indicate that it was a real raid?
And didn’t this incident once again reveal who is who? Didn’t we see once again the true face of the OCU? Their supporters stormed the cathedral under the cover of night, wearing masks and armed. This is the true face of this religious organisation! When our believers appealed to law enforcers, they left the territory of the cathedral, leaving them at the mercy of the invaders. And let Epifniy and Zoria say afterward that we are ready to sit down at the negotiating table with the UOC without preconditions; let the Phanar continue to "unite" the believers of Ukraine, while officials declare unprecedented religious freedom, but this does not change their thieving nature. It has long been clear to everyone what the invaders do with the seized churches and other property of the UOC... But why dress all this up in patriotism and the fight against the "Russian world"? Do they not understand that they, like any thief, might find one of the robbed houses to be the last?