Religious scholar says UOC parishes will not be able to defend themselves from law banning Church

Ukrainian religious scholar Oleksandr Brodetsky said that the parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will not be able to protect themselves from the anti-church law No. 3894, as the charters of the communities state that they recognize the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC as their governing body. According to the expert, since the religious expertise proved that the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC belongs to the Russian Orthodox Church, this decision will be extended to ordinary parishes. He said this in an interview with Suspilne.

“The statute of each parish of the UOC says that it is part of the vertical that leads to the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC. They do not deny that they are part of the UOC, led by Onufriy. This is mandatory in their charters because there is no such thing as a separate parish in the Orthodox world. That is, from the point of view of Ukrainian secular law, each parish is a separately registered structure. But from the point of view of the church structure itself, it is subordinate to the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC. And the UOC, as established by religious studies, is part of the Russian Orthodox Church,” — the expert said.

He added that in order to avoid falling under the law No. 3894, the parishes of the UOC can transfer to the OCU or renounce their affiliation with the Kyiv Metropolis.

“There will be a study of the statutes of the UOC churches. If experts find a connection, they will give the community an order and time to eliminate it. If they do not eliminate it, then the state will sue. The UOC has two options: either to decide to move to the OCU by two-thirds of the members of the congregation and exist within its structure, or to say “we are no longer in the structure of this UOC, which is subordinate to Moscow. We are a parish on our own,” — the religious scholar summarized.

Earlier, Mykola Kniazhytskyi, a member of the Ukrainian parliament from the European Solidarity party, confirmed that the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the scandalous anti-church law No. 3894, aimed at banning the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which was adopted, among other things, in order to take away churches from the UOC. Knyazhytsky believes that since not all settlements in Ukraine have churches of the OCU, people may not realize that their “priests have ties to Moscow.” Thus, the law banning the UOC is aimed at correcting this.