In 2023, 63 communities of the Moscow Patriarchate joined the OCU

10.04.2023, 15:41

214 religious communities joined the Orthodox Church of Ukraine from the beginning of the full-scale war until the end of 2022. Additionally, in 2023, 63 Ukrainian religious organizations moved from the Moscow Patriarchate to the OCU.

This information was provided by Opendatabot, a service that monitors the registration data of Ukrainian companies and the judicial register.

214 religious communities in Ukraine joined the Orthodox Church of Ukraine between the beginning of the full-scale war and the end of 2022. Of these, almost a third was located in the Kyiv region (20 churches), with the Vinnytsia and Khmelnytsky regions rounding out the top three, with 10 religious institutions each transferring their affiliation.

Despite the legal requirement for religious institutions to reflect their ties with aggressor countries in their name, some churches are attempting to hide this information. In response, the Ministry of Justice is now indicating on the unified state register that "it is not indicated that [the church] belongs to the Russian Orthodox Church" to ensure compliance with the amended law on freedom of conscience and religious organizations that came into force prior to the Russian attack on Ukraine.

However, there were such religious organizations of the Moscow Patriarchate that, trying to hide their ties with the Russian Federation, contrary to the requirements of the law, arbitrarily corrected the name from the Ministry of Justice to the previous one. All these religious communities are located on the territory of the Chernivtsi region.

Among them are the following:

• "The religious community of the parish in honor of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Diocese of Chernivtsi-Bukovyna of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the village of Verkhni Stanivtsi, Kitsman district, Chernivtsi region"

• "Religious community parish in honor of St. Nicholas of the Diocese of Chernivtsi-Bukovyna of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the city of Chernivtsi, Chernivtsi region"

• "Religious community of the parish in honor of the Holy Trinity of the Diocese of Chernivtsi-Bukovyna of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the village of Rzhavintsy, Zastavnivsky district, Chernivtsi region"

In total, there are now 8,505 churches in Ukraine that are subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate. The regions with the largest number of Churches of the Moscow Patriarchate have not changed since the end of 2022. These are the regions of Donetsk (683 religious institutions), Khmelnytskyi (613) and Vinnytsia (563).