Religious scholar: We expect an escalation of the confrontation between the state and the UOC

Lyudmila Filipovich, a lobbyist for the OCU in the media, Doctor of Philosophy, professor at the Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, expressed her opinion on the deprivation of citizenship of the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Filippovich is convinced that such a step by the state will not lead to an improvement in dialogue, but on the contrary will intensify the confrontation between the Church and the government. She said this on the air of the TV channel “Pryamyy.”

“I also wondered why now. Although we can rationally explain this by the fact that we see that relations between the UOC and the state have reached an impasse, so to speak, and may even have escalated… Other churches, in particular the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, are supposedly excluded from this conflict. That is, it is present there, but the main confrontation is still between the state and the law that restricts the presence of this church,” – Filipovich said.

The religious scholar added that such a development, unfortunately, will not lead to an improvement in relations between the Church and the state, but on the contrary, will deepen the existing contradictions. She expects the UOC to take appropriate action in response to Zelensky’s decision to strip Metropolitan Onufriy of his citizenship.

“What do we expect? A continuation of the confrontation, an escalation of this confrontation. Neither Berezovsky himself, nor the people around him, and even more so the parishioners of his church, will take this news positively, but will show their disagreement. I even think that there will be some protests, perhaps people will come out to some large rallies, where they will demand justice for their primate,” – added the religious scholar.

Earlier, we reported that the public organization “Olenivka Community,” which includes relatives of Ukrainian prisoners of war, published a statement calling for the exchange of the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy of Kyiv and All Ukraine, for Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen who are being held captive by Russia. The organization believes that the deprivation of citizenship of the Primate of the UOC “opens up the possibility for his exchange.”