Religious scholar demands “more freedom” for priests and laypeople of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church

Yuriy Chornomorets, a supporter and lobbyist for the OCU in the media, religious scholar, and member of the “Sofia Brotherhood,” demanded that the clergy and believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church be given “more freedom.” According to Chornomorets, this would enable the UOC to sever ties with the Russian Orthodox Church much more quickly and proclaim autocephaly. The words of the OCU lobbyist are reported by the media.

«Thank God, each parish has autonomy, even if people are tormented by the question of which jurisdiction they belong to. Unfortunately, our people forget a lot. First, they can do a lot in the parish. Second, since it is the 21st century, let’s give enormous freedom to the laity and priests, and you will see how much people can do on their own. […] I look at the UOC with great hope, because there are a huge number of living parishes, living priests, and lay people there. And so I wonder why there is no break with Moscow. Because the church is not only ready for autocephaly—the church (at the grassroots level—ed.) is very healthy, very cool, very full-blooded, but all the time it ties its own hands and begins to push itself into this Moscow well and drown itself in the swamp of this well,» — said Chornomorets.

Earlier, Yuriy Chornomorets stated that Orthodox clergy who do not have canonical ties with the head of the OCU, Epiphanius Dumenko, do not have the right to operate on the territory of Ukraine. Chornomorets added that the head of the OCU should consider anathematizing all hierarchs and clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and demand their expulsion from the country.