“Historic decision”: head of OCU speaks about the ban on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church

The head of the OCU, Epiphany Dumenko, spoke about the adoption of Bill 8371 in the Verkhovna Rada, aimed at banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Epiphany called the event a “historic decision” and once again called on representatives of the UOC to begin “a dialogue without preconditions.” He said this during a telethon, RBC-Ukraine reports.

“The parliament supported this bill in both the first and second readings. Therefore, we have a really appropriate and historic decision. The law allows all religious structures that have not yet done so to be completely free from Moscow’s control. And we, for our part, call again and again on all Orthodox Christians in Ukraine who have not yet done so to finally throw off this Russian yoke. We are open to dialogue without preconditions,” – Dumenko said.

Earlier, we reported that an unnamed source of the BBC from among the bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church told under what conditions the Church would enter into a dialogue with representatives of the OCU. According to him, in order to start a dialogue, it is necessary for the OCU to declare a moratorium on the seizure of UOC churches, and a truce between the parties.