The OCU will not be able to accept 3-4 thousand parishes that will be transferred to them after the ban on the UOC, - deputy

Yulia Klymenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament from the Voice party, has stated that the OCU will not be able to accept several thousand parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which may be taken away from the UOC after the ban. Klymenko believes that the OCU is experiencing a serious personnel crisis, which is already visible to the naked eye, and if 3-4 thousand parishes of the UOC are transferred to the organization, the situation may worsen even more. She spoke about this in an interview with the publication Glavkom.

“The OCU must be actively involved, as must the Council of Churches. I have met with them on numerous occasions and urged them to bring order to the religious sphere and at least help with bureaucratic procedures. But no one wants to take this on because the issue is very sensitive, especially when there is no political will from above. In addition, it should be remembered that the OCU also has limited capabilities. If tomorrow, hypothetically, they are given four thousand parishes, I don’t think they will be able to fill them, because they simply don’t have that many priests,” – Klymenko said.

However, the deputy believes that this problem will be solved thanks to the clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, who in a year or two, one way or another, will transfer to the OCU and replenish the personnel reserve of the Ukrainian schism.

“There are many priests of the Moscow Patriarchate who are worthy people. A year or two ago, they began to consider alternative options for separating themselves from the UOC-MP. This will take time,” – the deputy added.

It should be noted that representatives of the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience, together with the OCU, complain about the personnel crisis in the Ukrainian schism. The authorities complain that after the seizure of Ukrainian Orthodox Church temples in the regions, UOC priests refuse to transfer to the OCU, taking the most active parishioners with them. Under the current circumstances, a situation has arisen where one OCU cleric is forced to serve 4-5 parishes, and there are very few new clerics in the OCU because “service” in the organization remains low-paying.