Religious scholar Smirnov: the UOC has become toxic and does not enjoy broad support in society

A lobbyist of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and a freelance expert of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, Andriy Smirnov, claims that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has become «toxic» and no longer enjoys support in Ukrainian society. In the opinion of the religious scholar, this is evidenced by the fact that representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are no longer invited to official state events and meetings of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches. He told about this in a commentary to the Left Bank publication.

«The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate has lost the privileged status it had previously, in particular during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych. Now this church has become toxic and does not enjoy wide support of the population, at least according to the results of sociological surveys. Representatives of the UOC-MP are not invited to meetings with state leaders or even to meetings of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations. They do not have the right to hold chaplaincy positions in the AFU, are not subject to reservation, and 23 bishops are involved in various criminal proceedings. That is, the UOC-MP has lost its dominant position,» he believes.

Smirnov is convinced that at the moment the main problem for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is the loss of immovable property. The religious scholar claims that this process has already begun and will develop in the future.

«The worst thing for the UOC-MP is that it will lose property. At least those monuments of culture, architecture, which are in state or communal ownership. This process has begun. As an example — the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, where the contracts are actually terminated, cathedrals in Chernigov or in Vladimir in Volyn region. Somewhere the contracts expired and they were not renewed, or the state is suing for violation of legislation on the protection of monuments,» Smirnov said.

Recall, earlier the press service of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church published information about the results of the «expertise» State Service of Ukraine on ethno-politics and freedom of conscience, according to which the affiliation of the UOC with the Moscow Patriarchate was established. The Church notes that the DESS came to its conclusions about the UOC’s affiliation with the Russian Orthodox Church by referring not to Ukrainian but Russian documents, which the SSEU took from the website of the Moscow Patriarchate, which is banned in Ukraine. In addition, the «experts» of the HESS never once asked the UOC for explanations regarding certain provisions, which indicates the bias of the expert examination and its conclusions.