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DECLARATION

of the First AlI-Ukrainian Congress of the Ukrainian Native Faith
to the Ukrainian Government and all Ukrainians,
in Ukraine and out of its borders.

Dear government statesmen of Ukraine!
Dear friends and brothers and sisters of the Ukrainian Native Faith!
Dear Ukrainians, confessors of all different confessions!

We are on the threshold of the Third millennium . Nowadays humanity begins to realize the importance of renewal of its spiritual values which have been lost for millennia. The reasons of these losses are getting obvious. Mixing of ethnic (national) cultures finally inevitably leads to demolition of the ethnosphere which is a part of biosphere of the Earth. You should not forget that a person and a nation are a part of the nature. Just as nature exists owing to the variety of species so the society lives and develops in its variety of ethnocultural expressions.

In this critical moments of history, the appeal of the animistic faith of our Ancestors is first of all the search for the ways out of the spiritual, political and economic crisis. We, the Ukrainian animists, represent the movement of Regeneration of the Ukrainian Native Faith (the Ukrainian Animism) as the traditionally Ukrainian confession which was commenced by professor Volodymyr Shayan in 1934.

We consider ourselves the heirs and successors of the Animistic Faith of Russ-Ukraine, which was forbidden in 988 to satisfy the international religion - Christianity. Our Native Faith is deep, traditional and the only national confession. We have our dogma which is represented in "The Book of Veles", "Our Ancestors' Faith" by professor Volodymyr Shayan, "Volkhovnyk", and "Pravoslov". (the prayers to Native Gods).

The communities of the Ukrainian Native Faith have been registered and are being registered in different regions of Ukraine now. They are officially recognized.

Ukraine is a participant of World Congress of the Ethnic Religions (WCER), whose slogan is "Unity in Diversity". The Congress recognizes the originality of every ethnic religion and defends their rights and freedoms and is against religious discrimination. Peoples' return to their native religions is a natural evolutionary process .But in Ukraine, the negative appreciation of our spiritual heritage is still being spreaded by mass-media, vulgar names such as "pohanstvo" (bad) and "pohantsi" (bad people) are used. But these words are the exact rendering of the word "paganus" (peasant) from Latin into Ukrainian. From here comes "paganism" (the peasant faith). And the leaders of the confessions even call to the annihilation of animism.

The Mass-media, to satisfy the governmental policy of christianisation, denies us access to their pages and time so we can inform about the Native Animistic Faith of the Ukrainians. That is why we demand that the Government of Ukraine, as part of the official reabilitation of the Native Faith (Ukrainian Animism) remove the information blockade and uphold the Law of Freedom of conscience and international agreements on rights of a person and organizations, which were signed and ratified by Ukraine. Freedom of conscience cannot exist without Freedom of speech.

At the same time, we want the state structures to pay attention to ensuring the equal rights and possibilities for citizens, the representatives of different confessions.

We consider inadmissible dismissal from from work, expulsion of the believers of the Ukrainian Native Faith from creative groups and others. Forced christianisation of school specifically in the Westem regions of Ukraine causes indignation of the public's broad Circles. The support of only one Christian confession affirms the infringement of article 35 of the Constitution of Ukraine, which clearly declares separation of a church from a state.

We, the Ukrainian animists, who got together to this Congress on the occasion of the 7-th anniversary of the Independence of Ukraine create the Union of the believers of the Ukrainian Native Faith in Ukraine with the center in Kyiv. Since there is still prejudice to our confession in some regions of Ukraine, we address our State Committee of Religions and Cults and insist on the free registration of our religious communities in all regions of Ukraine.

Only those states which are developing in national ways can achieve the best prosperity .Only the persons with the highest level of national consciousness can direct the state to this way. The Native Faith as the national spiritual system can bring up a new person of the national type and also to stop the formation of faceless practical men without any national face. The Native Faith of the Ukrainian people is of their self-preservation and the guarantor of their natural ethnic development. We trust in the Native Ukrainian Gods, united in Svaroh!

August, 25, 1998. Kyiv Ukraine


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