Council of Churches Calls on State Not to Make Registartion Procedure More Complicated

The Secretariat of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations is concerned over the information that all religious organizations should confirm their registration in the registry offices and over the recent legislative initiatives in this regard.

These problems were discussed at a session of May 16 in Kyiv held under the chairmanship of Protopriest Oleksa Petriv of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the Institute for Religious Freedom (IRF) reported.

The representatives of the denominations decided to forward to the Ministry of Culture and State Registration Service a letter setting out their position on the state registration of religious organizations. In their opinion, the procedure should not be made more complicated in order not to burden tens of thousands of religious communities with the requirement to register them again. 

The Secretariat of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations also expressed its concern over Bill №10221 which envisages contradictory alterations to the Law On Freedom of Worship and Religious Organizations.