“Why convince them if they can simply be thrown out of churches?”, - journalist Shchotkina about UOC believers

Ukrainian journalist Kateryna Shchotkina has published her thoughts on why the faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church do not want to join the OCU. Shchotkina believes that the problem with the lack of interest in the OCU is that UOC believers are committed to the idea of “Holy Rus,” which, in her opinion, unites a set of beliefs that are completely alien to Ukrainian identity. The journalist dismissively calls the UOC believers “migrants of Holy Rus,” pointing out that instead of trying to influence their views, it is much easier to throw them out of churches. The article is posted on the website Religion in Ukraine.

«The problem of dialog that arises here is very simple. The “Sviatoslavian migrants” accuse the OCU of being ‘politicized’, “politically engaged”, or even a “political project”. This is unacceptable to them. On the other hand, there are accusations that “Holy Rus” is an even worse political project. This accusation makes sense. But it doesn’t work. Not only because radio does not work against mythological consciousness at all. First, there is no point in measuring who is more politicized or worse politicized here — there is no point in measuring at all for those who actually want to reach an agreement. And secondly, it doesn’t make much sense (except for creating noise), because these accusations are usually directed at people who have already severed their ties with “Holy Rus” or are at least going to do so,» — Shchotkina writes.

The journalist added that the OCU currently has no arguments that could convince UOC believers to join the organization. Therefore, according to Shchotkina, it is much easier to simply throw the UOC believers out of the churches they occupy.

«As for the people who still hold on to their myth, we do not yet have ways of peaceful persuasion. Why search for and invent a spiritual antidote if you can just throw them out of the churches?», — she concluded.

We recall that on June 19, 2025, two days after an unsuccessful attempt by supporters of the OCU to seize the Holy Spirit Cathedral of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Chernivtsi, the head of the OCU Epiphany Dumenko published “reflections” in which he accused the clergy and believers of the UOC of “hostility to their compatriots”. Dumenko believes that the UOC manipulates with “half-truths”, “hiding or distorting the truth”.