Earlier, the OCU lobbyist in the media and a freelance expert of the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience, religious scholar Andriy Smirnov, said that after the adoption of the law banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the state should increase its influence on the clergy and believers of the denomination in order to persuade them to join the OCU. Smirnov is convinced that those who do not want to become part of the Ukrainian schism should leave Ukraine and go to Russia.
“We support the legislative initiative of the President of Ukraine to prevent the activities of such organizations in our country” - AUCCRO on the ban of the UOC
The All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (AUCCRO) has issued a joint statement following a meeting with President Vladimir Zelensky. The AUCCRO stated that they fully support Zelensky’s initiative to ban the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by adopting the scandalous bill No. 8371. This is reported by the official website of the AUCCRO.
“We reaffirm our statement of April 11, 2023, that partnerships and freedom of religion and their protection by the state are the basis of church-state relations in Ukraine, and no organization — whether religious or secular — that has a center in a country that has committed military aggression against our people and is governed by the aggressor state can operate in Ukraine. We support the legislative initiative of the President of Ukraine to make it impossible for such organizations to operate in our country, which also has broad political and public support,” — the statement reads.
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