Metropolitan Kliment on the ban of the UOC: "DESS persistently ignores our point of view"

The head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s Synodal Information and Education Department, Metropolitan Kliment (Vecherya), has said that the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) continues to ignore the official statements of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on breaking relations with the Russian Orthodox Church. The hierarch claims that the relevant decision was made back in 2022 at the Council in Theophany, but the State Service was not satisfied with these decisions. About this he told in an interview with the TV channel “5 channel”.

“This prescription we fulfilled back in 2022. And sent our decision regarding our status and relationship to the ROC or any other foreign religious centers, sent to the DESS. However, the DESS persistently ignores our point of view”, – said the bishop.

We shall remind you that earlier the head of the State Service of Ukraine on Ethno-politics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) Viktor Yelensky called on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) to abandon its current Charter. This statement was made in the context of the discussion of the draft law on banning the UOC at the event “Dialogue of the Church, State and Society: Ways to Understanding”, where Yelensky again accused the church of affiliation with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and using religion for subversive activities.