Believers in Crimea seek political asylum in USA

The Bishop of Simferopol And the Crimean Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kyiv Patriarchate) Klymentiy will carry out a prayer protest in front of the Property Fund of Crimea. Believers of the Kyiv Patriarchate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, under the direction of the Simferopol and Crimean Metropolitan Klymenty (Clement), have carried out a “protest prayer” in front of a building of the Crimean Property Fund, which in their opinion is impeding their use of the building of the Cathedral of the Apostolic Princes Volodymyr and Olha in Simferopol. A decision on the matter was passed by the republic’s parliament in 2001, but each time the fund finds a way of not executing the decision of the legislature. Believers of the UOC KP in Crimea have directed over 300 letters to authorities in Crimea and Kyiv, including seventeen personal appeals to President Leonid Kuchma, but either they have not received answers, or they have received formal replies which the Property Fund continues to ignore.

The appeal, which the faithful passed on to authorities after the prayer, tells of the tragic events which have entailed destruction of the administration of the Crimean Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Kyiv Patriarchate, forcing them to address the international community for help. “Having been a witness to and participant in the revival of the Ukrainian state, our Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” the document states, “shall not remain on the sidelines.” This document affirms that under pressure from the Moscow Patriarchate, a foreign church in Ukraine, and with the support of the pro-Russian Crimean authority, national relics of Ukraine from Crimea were handed over to Russia. And since 1995, the Property Fund of the Autonomous Republic of the Crimea, with the support of the Council of Religious Affairs of Crimea have carried out systematic work directed at the destruction of the Crimean Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Kyiv Patriarchate.

The participants of the protest prayers declared, “The management of the Property Fund of the Crimean Autonomous Republic headed by I. M. Atlasov, under the guise of the protecting property in the state’s interest, is trying to liquidate the single cathedral in Crimea and the eparchial administration located in Simferopol... The aforementioned I. M. Atlasov, according to the appeal, considers that “the Kyiv Patriarchate has nothing in common with the Holy Orthodox Church.” He also promotes his own statements with opposition and violence. And for this reason participants of the protest prayer consider it their duty to address to world community: “...In the case that the constitutional laws of the believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Kyiv Patriarchate, in theCrimea and citizens of the state of Ukraine are ignored, we shall be compelled to address the President and the Congress of United States of America about granting to the community of the Kyiv Patriarchy in Crimea political asylum in connection with religious persecution...”