St. Andrew's UOC, Los Angeles,
California
To: Mr. Myroslaw Smorodsky
We, the undersigned, bona-fide members of the UOC-USA, headquartered in So. Bound Brook, NJ, and parishioners of various member parishes across the country, would like to express our indignation over the action taken by His Eminence Archbishop of Ieropolis, in his unauthorized representation of the UOC-USA, in initiation of a lawsuit against our sister parish Holy Ascension UOC, Clifton, NJ and her duly-elected Parish Board, without the knowledge and/or consent of the other member parishes of the UOC-USA and/or the general membership. We strongly oppose this lawsuit which pits the entire Church and hierarchy against a member parish and individual parishioners.
We are committed to preserving the principles on which our founding fathers established this Church, which guarantees "sobornopravnist" our unique form of representative government in which individual parishes retain the right to control matters pertaining to the management of their own parishes, including all operational, administrative and financial responsibilities, including but not limited to the employment of clergy, the control of parish income, expenses and investments, the sale and disposition and/or maintenance of all property (real and other) and assets (fixed and other).
We protest this action.
Signed ……. Parishioners of St. Andrew's UOC, Los Angeles, California
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++