OCU acknowledges that the Charter of the UOC does not indicate affiliation with the Moscow Patriarchate

The head of the Chernivtsi Diocese of the OCU, Theognost Borodyak, admitted that the Charter of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church does not indicate affiliation with the Moscow Patriarchate. However, Borodyak believes that in this matter it is better to rely on the results of the religious expertise of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience, which “proved the opposite.” He said this in a commentary to the ACC edition.

“The UOC has a charter, which, of course, does not state that they belong to the Moscow Patriarchate. The state has created an ethnic policy committee, which has a religious commission in its structure, where secular specialists with a theological education have gathered, who are familiar not only with state statutes but also with canon law and church law. Such specialists will easily prove that the religious organization of the UOC belongs to a structure hostile to Ukraine and centered in the state that is the aggressor,” — Borodyak said.

In addition, the head of the Chernivtsi Diocese of the OCU expects that in some time, the state will be able to take away from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church the religious buildings owned by the UOC communities on a lease basis. Borodyak is convinced that all these procedures will have to be carried out “with comfort for people.”

“In 9 months, the Ethnic Policy Committee will assess the religious organization. There are approximately 7,000 other parishes in Ukraine that have permanent buildings. Of these, 3 thousand are communal property. This is a great force. Even if this is the only result of the law, it will be a lot of work. It will not be easy, it will take a long time, but everything is possible. People will be given the right to choose. The main thing is that people feel comfortable in all this. That people find spiritual satisfaction in the church,” — he added.

Earlier, the odious head of the Volyn Diocese of the OCU, Mikhail Zinkevich, spoke about which churches and monasteries he would be able to take away from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Volyn thanks to Law No. 8371 adopted by the Verkhovna Rada. According to Zinkevich, the state will transfer one of the cathedrals and several monasteries, which are architectural monuments, to the ownership of the Volyn Diocese of the OCU.