OCU faces acute shortage of clergy, - Simeon Shostatsky

The OCU is experiencing an acute «staff shortage» due to the insufficient number of clergy. This was stated by the hierarch of the OCU, Simeon Shostatsky, on the air of the Khmelnytsky TV channel TV7plus, noting that the main reason is the reluctance of the clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) to move to the structure of the OCU when changing the affiliation of communities.

According to Simeon Shostatsky, if earlier one cleric of the UOC served a maximum of one or two parishes, now the clergy of the OCU are forced to take care of up to five parishes at the same time. «They try to go around them all on Saturday and Sunday and perform services so as not to leave the faithful without a common communal prayer. Somewhere they serve the liturgy in one parish, in the second — a dinner, in the third — a prayer service, kafisma, and so on,» said Shostatsky, describing the difficulties faced by priests.

The Metropolitan also touched upon the reasons why the rectors and communities of the UOC are in no hurry to move to the OCU. In his opinion, the UOC priests «do not want to leave their comfort zone.» At the same time, Shostatsky appealed to the clergy of the UOC to «not hold on to the lousy coat of the Moscow Patriarchate.»

During the interview, Simeon Shostatsky also explained his transfer to the Khmelnytsky see, saying that it happened «due to our joint agreement with Bishop Pavel, my former predecessor at the Khmelnytsky see, we made a rotation.»

Earlier, we reported that representatives of the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience, together with the OCU, complain about the personnel crisis in the Ukrainian schism. The institutions complain that after the seizures of churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the regions, the priests of the UOC refuse to transfer to the OCU, taking the most active parishioners with them. In the current circumstances, a situation is created when one OCU cleric is forced to serve 4-5 parishes, and there are very few new clerics in the OCU due to the fact that the «service» in the organization remains low-profitable.