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Keir Starmer has come below strain to shortly appoint an envoy for spiritual freedom after frustration over the delay to exchange former Tory MP Fiona Bruce.
The row has damaged out as a number one Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) priest has appealed to the UK for help in urging President Volodymyr Zelensky to finish his crackdown on the church and monks in his nation.
Metropolitan Arseniy, the abbot of the Dormition Sviatohirsk Lavra, was arrested over suspicions he was “disseminating information about the movement or location of armed forces” to Vladimir Putin’s Russia. But he has claimed that it’s a part of a wider persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by Mr Zelensky’s authorities within the present struggle.
He has spoken solely to The Independent urging the UK to make use of its affect to cease the persecution of his church.
The concern was raised at a latest worldwide convention in Berlin and has already seen concern raised by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, in addition to the Foreign Office (FCDO) which has beforehand confirmed it’s monitoring the state of affairs in Ukraine.
However, as a result of the UK has but to nominate a brand new envoy for spiritual freedom, former Tory chief Sir Iain Duncan Smith criticised the federal government for not having a presence on the convention in Berlin.
He stated: “Keir Starmer promised that ‘Labour will be a champion of religious freedom’. But after more than 100 days in office, he has still not appointed a special envoy on freedom of religion or belief.
“As a result, only last week, at an international conference in Berlin on this vital matter, attended by senior figures from 38 countries, the UK went unrepresented at a ministerial level. Our presence and our voice has never been more needed. All over the world there are growing numbers of threats to this most fundamental of human rights.”
A Downing Street spokesperson stated an appointment can be made sooner or later.
The spokesperson advised The Independent: “The government will retain the position of envoy for freedom of religion and belief.”
The Independent just lately revealed that the Ukrainian authorities is trying to have Ukrainian MP Artem Dmytruk, a critic over the anti-Orthodox church coverage, deported from the UK.
Speaking to The Independent, Metropolitan Arseniy warned: “The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is facing a great trial. Our holy temples and shrines have been destroyed, and our priests and parishioners are being killed in the war. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian government seeks to ban the church. Priests are being wrongfully arrested, and our places of worship are being seized and taken from us.”
The Ukrainian authorities has turned its consideration to the UOC although a lot of its monks are serving to the nation’s military on the entrance line towards Putin’s Russian forces. However, Mr Zelensky’s authorities has accused many UOC monks of spying for Russia and claims it takes its orders from Putin ally Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, a former senior determine within the KGB.
Metropolitan Arseniy is father superior of the Sviatohirsk Lavra, one of the crucial well-known Orthodox monasteries in Ukraine, and is being held in pre-trial detention in Dnipro, the place he has been arbitrarily detained since April.
He strongly denies the accusations towards him personally and the UOC that they’re working for Putin.
He stated: “The authorities in Ukraine unfairly accuse the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of being a mouthpiece of Russian propaganda. Nothing is further from the truth. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is a one-thousand-year-old Christian denomination. Its churches and monasteries are world renowned. We do not preach any ideology. We preach the good news of God’s promise of forgiveness from sin.”
He identified that his monastery was closed by the communist authorities within the previous Soviet Union and solely reopened after its collapse with him taking the management in 1995.
The Ukrainian authorities turned their consideration on him after he preached a sermon in September 2023 complaining about pilgrims being prevented from coming to the monastery due to the struggle. But he insists that his monastery has shared within the ache of Ukraine.
“We of the Sviatohirsk Lavra have suffered with our fellow Ukrainian citizens during the war. Our local parishioners fight on the front lines and our historic monastery has been badly damaged by bombing. However, the monks have persevered, and they continue to support those displaced by the conflict. Located just 15 kilometres from the front lines in Eastern Ukraine, the community provides shelter and food to those most at risk.
“Despite all the good that our monastery has done, the authorities seek to undo our hard work. The government has mounted a campaign to strip the monastery from us. Meanwhile, I have been persecuted for my faith and detained in jail.”
Describing his ordeal, he stated: “In violation of the law and criminal procedure of Ukraine, I have been detained in a prison facility for nearly six months. My court hearings offer no hope of respite.
“Over the summer, I was forced to travel eight hours from where I am held in Dnipro to reach Sloviansk, the location of the court, a town close to the front lines. The vehicle often had no air-conditioning, and I suffocated in the summer heat.
“I was handcuffed for the duration of the journey and denied water and food. Once the hearings were over, I was forced to travel back to Dnipro in the same conditions.”
The harrowing journey was then repeated the next day.
He added: “I am 56, and my health is beginning to fail. Although I do not know when I will be released, I put my trust in God and will continue to speak only truth.
“I pray for this ordeal to end, for my return to Sviatohirsk, the reconstruction of our monastery, and peace in Ukraine. I pray too for an end to the attack on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. We Ukrainians must be united.”
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