OCU cleric сalls UOC "enemy" and urges for unity with Uniates

Ivan Rybaruk. Photo: a screenshot from fm.galychyna video

A cleric of the OCU, Ivan Rybaruk, rector of the Nativity of the Theotokos Church in the village of Kryvorivnia, Ivano-Frankivsk region, stated that the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the country are in fact "the presence of the enemy." In a video address published on Independence Day by the radio station "FM Halychyna", he explained how to properly struggle against the UOC.

In his address, Rybaruk stated that "the Moscow church, disguising itself as the UOC," preaches not the Gospel but the idea of the "Russian world," which he calls the heresy of ethnophyletism, allegedly condemned at the Council of Crete in 2016. According to him, the struggle against this "internal enemy" must be waged primarily in the information field, in order to convince Ukrainians of the need to rally around the "Ukrainian church."

The OCU cleric explained the importance of uniting the OCU and the Uniates in such a "spiritual struggle." The independence of Ukraine, in Rybaruk's view, will become truly complete only when the country has "a single Ukrainian Church of Volodymyr's Baptism, which has nothing in common with Moscow."

The footage shows that in the OCU church, a statuette of Christ was dressed in an embroidered towel and a Ukrainian flag was placed in the Savior's hand.

As the UOJ reported, the OCU cleric allows attending Uniate churches.

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