Zaporozhye, Zaporozhye Province, Ukraine, April 17, 2025
Photo: Telegram His Eminence Metropolitan Luke of Zaporozhye, one of the most outspoken hierarchs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, has condemned the LGBT film festival that will open in Kiev on Holy Friday and called upon other religious leaders to raise their voices.
The Sunny Bunny LGBT Film Festival will be held on Holy Friday, Holy Saturday, Holy Pascha, and throughout Bright Week. According to the organizers, the goal of the festival is to “become a significant representative of the Ukrainian and international LGBT community, play a significant role in political and social representation and catalyze changes towards equality in Ukrainian society,” reports the Union of Orthodox Journalists.
But holy days must not be mocked, Met. Luke writes in his relevant Telegram post.
Our faith calls us to love everyone, he writes, but “love cannot be indifference. True love speaks the truth—with compassion, but also with courage. God loves man but hates sin, so the idea that ‘God loves everyone,’ is inappropriate in such cases.”
He continues:
Holy Friday is the day when the entire Christian world remembers the Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross for the salvation of people from sin. Pascha is a celebration of victory over death, a celebration of light, purity and life. Using these days to promote an ideology that contradicts Christian morality is deeply disrespectful not only to believers, but also to the very spiritual essence of the human person.
“This festival isn’t even a malicious joke—it’s an outright outrage,” His Eminence writes.
Given that this outrage is happening on such holy days, it is only natural to ask where is the voice of Ukraine’s spiritual leaders, Met. Luke laments. Given how important religiosity has always been in Ukraine, the silence from spiritual leaders is deafening, he writes.
“We hear statements on political topics, about the social structure, and others—and this is necessary. But where is the word about moral corruption, which is presented under the guise of ‘art?’ Where is the protection of sacred symbols, where is the guidance to the flock, where is the fatherly voice that can stop madness?”
Unfortunately, he writes, the answer is obvious—these spiritual leaders are “busy supporting legislative initiatives aimed at the legal ‘murder’ of my Mother Church, the UOC, tacit consent to the violent seizure of its churches, the beating of the faithful children of the UOC who defend their churches, and the vociferous declaration of the persecution of the UOC as ‘incredible religious freedom.’”
The Metropolitan concludes:
Why is there no joint voice of Orthodox, Catholics, Greek Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Protestants—the voice of reason, faith and conscience? Why is faith silent when unbelief screams?
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