The lawmaker attributes the “slow transition” of UOC parishes to the OCU to a shortage of personnel in Dumenko’s administration

People’s Deputy Mykola Knyazhitsky stated that the OCU is not ready to accept new parishes on a large scale due to a lack of clergy and organizational resources. According to him, the institution’s lack of readiness is one of the reasons why the transition of parishes is proceeding more slowly than expected.

Asreported by Espreso, Knyazhitsky expressed this position on the program “Algorithms of Lies.” The politician, who co-authored the law banning religious organizations linked to the Russian Federation, acknowledged that the pace of congregations switching from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) to the structure led by Epiphanius Dumenko remains significantly slower than planned.

According to the lawmaker, the key problem is a shortage of personnel in the OCU. “They don’t have enough priests, and this raises many other issues,” Knyazhitsky noted. He also added that the issue is not a lack of willingness to accept new congregations, but rather a lack of funding and insufficient attention from the state to these processes.

In addition, the lawmaker pointed to problems in the judicial sphere. According to him, Ukrainian courts are dragging their feet on cases related to church matters because they do not receive a “clear political signal.” Knyazhitsky also believes that state agencies and the OCU are not interacting actively enough with the clergy of the UOC to provide clergymen with guarantees of safety and prospects in the event of a transition.

As a reminder, earlier, Simeon Shostatsky, head of the OCU’s Khmelnytskyi Diocese, once again raised the issue of a critical shortage of clergy that has arisen amid the transition of parishes from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). The main problem is that while the faithful are ready to change their jurisdiction, priests are refusing en masse to transfer to the OCU along with their parishes.