“As long as the UOC is led by Metropolitan Onuphrius, unification with the OCU will not happen,” - expert SSERF

A lobbyist of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the mass media and a freelance expert of the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, religious scholar Andriy Smirnov, has said that despite the second reading of the bill No 8371, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will not unite with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Smirnov believes that the reason for this is the leadership of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy of Kyiv and All Ukraine in the UOC. About this religious scholar told in an interview with the BBC edition.

“There are weaknesses in the document, which may become the basis for its appeal both in the Constitutional Court of Ukraine and the European Court of Human Rights. Of course, these trials will drag on for years. But as long as the UOC is led by Metropolitan Onufriy, unification with the PCU will not happen. Therefore, there are several scenarios: negotiations with the Ecumenical Patriarchate and judicial red tape with the state, and then going underground and marginalization. They are in no danger even after the termination of registration of a legal entity by the court. Communities can operate without registration, and temples can be registered to individuals. Believers of the UOC will continue to be able to gather and pray in them,” — said Smirnov.

We will remind, earlier we reported that Volodymyr Zelensky announced the discussion of the Ukrainian church issue with representatives of the Constantinople patriarchate. The head of state said this while commenting on the adoption in the Verkhovna Rada of the bill № 8371, aimed at banning the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.