Former UOC Priest Spoke About the “Fear and Challenges” of Joining the OCU

A former priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, who broke away and joined the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) with his community, Archimandrite Seraphim Lisovyi, discussed the reasons why, in his opinion, most clerics do not dare to make a similar step. According to him, fear—both personal and social—plays a key role. He spoke about this in an interview with the channel CHEline.

“Fear is what drives people when it comes to transferring, because we understand that the will to move from the UOC to the OCU depends not only on the priest. To a greater extent, it depends on the community. People are afraid of losing what they have gained in their life, both spiritually and materially,” the cleric said.

“In my case, I myself prepared the parishioners to accept this decision, trying not to force them to do so, but explaining that it would not lead to anything bad in a spiritual sense and would not be a betrayal of faith. Because we are being disingenuous when we say that a person who converts to the Orthodox Church is betraying their faith. The Lord’s Prayer, the symbol of faith, does not change. And even though we read the Lord’s Prayer in Church Slavonic or Ukrainian, we still do not read it in the original language. Therefore, we are, so to speak, betraying Christ, who spoke Aramaic and recited this prayer in the ancient Aramaic language. We do not know it by heart in this language, but we know it in the language that is closer to us. And when you tried to explain this to people, they support it, understand it, and make their own decisions,” said Lisovyi.

The OCU representative also explained that religious communities often trust their priest, and, allegedly because of this, many clerics are afraid to make the decision to join the OCU: “They start saying that the Orthodox Church of Ukraine has no grace, that there is no salvation there. Many live with the fear of making a mistake.”

According to Seraphim Lisovyi, one of the factors that holds clerics back is the “affiliation of the UOC with the Russian Orthodox Church.”

“The UOC does not have autocephaly. Its mother church is the ROC, and to this day, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is connected to the global Orthodox world through Moscow. This is a legal and spiritual bond that is difficult to overcome,” he stated.

The former UOC priest also hopes for the future of a “unified local Orthodox Church in Ukraine.”

“In Ukraine, there should be one single local Orthodox Church that will serve the people and the state. Some people will remain in the ROC, but true Christian life is not about formalities, it is about love for God and for one’s neighbor,” he concluded.

Earlier, we reported that Ukrainian MP Yulia Klimenko said the state would need 5 to 10 years to fully ban the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The deputy argues that the anti-church initiatives adopted so far are insufficient, so the process of a complete ban on the UOC will be prolonged.