The court refused the UOC's request to review the expertise of the new Charter

The Kyiv District Administrative Court dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church demanding the removal of experts from the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience and a review of their examination of the new version of the UOC Statute, adopted in May 2022 at the Council in Feofania. The Kyiv Metropolitanate argued that the experts appointed by the SES to analyze the provisions of the UOC Statute are biased in the matter of religious preferences. This was reported by the Glavkom website.

“The plaintiff (the Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Ed.) did not provide evidence to prove the influence of individual views of experts on the course and result of the religious examination, collectively and unanimously made conclusions, etc. In addition, the plaintiff did not provide arguments that would refute the very content of the religious expert opinion, which may indicate its objectivity,” – the court decision says.

As reported earlier, 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.”