Council of Churches Supports Amendments to Renew Earlier Version of Religious Law
The heads of denominations supported the legislative changes prepared by the Ministry of Justice and aimed to renew the previous version of the Law of Ukraine “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations.”
The decision was passed by the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations at its session of January 24 held under the chairmanship of Archbishop Grygoris Buniatian, the Institute for Religious Freedom (IRF) reports.
Deputy Director of the Department on Religions and Nationalities Maksym Budarin voiced the position of the Ministry of Culture in this regard. According to him, in addition to the introduction of the “single window” principle in the process of registration of religious organizations, one should take the opportunity to correct the obsolete norms in the Law on Freedom of Worship. In particular, it is proposed to pass the functions of control to the central body of the executive power on religious matters, that is the Ministry of Culture.
According to the results of the discussion, the heads of churches and religious organizations instructed the Secretariat of AUCCRO to elaborate the final version of the table of amendments to the bill which is subsequently to be forwarded to the president and the Ministry of Justice.
In addition, the members of the Council of Churches came up with an action plan for 2013. The AUCCRO continues to prepare the trip of the heads of the Ukrainian denominations to Brussels. They also plan to visit Armenia on the invitation of the chairman and to hold a number of meetings to discuss the interdenominational dialogue and exchange experiences with the Armenian community.
