The OCU in the Khmelnytskyi region assigns one clergyman to every two or three parishes taken from the UOC

The Khmelnytskyi Diocese of the OCU commented on the situation regarding the assignment of clergy to churches that had previously been seized from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Because priests of the canonical Church refused to transfer to the OCU during the period of mass seizures of UOC churches, the diocese faced a systemic shortage of clergy, resulting in each OCU clergyman now serving 2–3 parishes, including affiliated villages. This was reported by the publication vsim.ua.

According to Zakhar Zalizny, press secretary of the Khmelnytskyi Diocese, only about 10% of the UOC’s parishes voluntarily transferred to the OCU along with their former rectors. In the remaining cases, churches were left without leaders, forcing the diocese to assign clergy already serving in other parishes to additional parishes.

According to Zalizny, due to this situation, the Khmelnytskyi region is now one of the largest “employment hubs” for graduates of the OCU’s theological educational institutions.

As a reminder, earlier, the head of the Khmelnytskyi Diocese of the OCU, Simeon Shostatsky, once again raised the issue of the critical shortage of clergy that has arisen amid the transition of parishes from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). The main problem is that UOC priests are refusing en masse to transfer to the OCU along with their parishes.