Religious scholar: More people go to UOC churches than to OCU

A supporter and lobbyist of the OCU in the media, religious scholar Yuriy Chornomorets, said that despite the ongoing pressure on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, many more people visit the churches of this denomination than religious buildings belonging to the OCU. The religious scholar noted that the OCU has a large number of internal problems that the organization continues to ignore. In addition to the low attendance of the OCU churches, Chernomorets also emphasized the problem of recognition of the Ukrainian schism by the Local Churches, which has actually stopped. He spoke about this in his report at the conference “Church-State Relations in Ukraine: State and Challenges”.

“We see, from the point of view of the actual truth, constant hypocrisy on the part of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which has huge problems, there is a systematic failure to recognize these problems — internal and external. “Everything is fine with us!” Well, for example, the number one factor is the fact that more people physically go to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which remains in the Moscow Patriarchate and is an integral part of it, than to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. But no, we will say whatever we want, but we will not recognize this fact, which is obvious to any competent researcher. No, we will curse, say that Mitrokhin is lying, or someone else is lying. If we even mention it, we will immediately be ostracized,” — said Chornomorets.

In addition, the religious scholar separately highlighted the problem associated with the lack of recognition of the OCU by other Local Churches. Chornomorets believes that to achieve this goal, the OCU should compromise.

“Or, for example, there is the problem of lack of a sense of realism. If you want to be recognized by the Orthodox Local Churches other than the four that have recognized you, you need to compromise. The state has to compromise, society has to compromise, and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine has to compromise. No, we will not give up,” — he added.

Earlier, we reported that Yuriy Chornomorets, after the seizure of the Archangel Michael Cathedral of the UOC in Cherkasy, proposed to deport the head of the Cherkasy Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Theodosius of Cherkasy and Kaniv, to Russia. The Chornomorets is convinced that the bishop destabilizes the internal situation in the country and is not worthy of living in Ukraine.