For more than a year, the Metropolitanate has been seeking recognition of the inaction of officials due to their lack of response to the recusal of experts involved in the religious examination of the UOC Charter. Instead, the Kyiv District Administrative Court, in its decision of September 18, recognized that the plaintiff had not provided “evidence to prove the influence of individual views of experts on the course and outcome of the religious examination, and the conclusions reached collectively and unanimously.”
According to Glavkom, citing the court's decision, the plaintiff also asked to invalidate the Conclusion of the religious examination of the Statute on the management of the UOC for the presence of ecclesiastical and canonical ties with the Moscow Patriarchate, approved by the order of the State Service for Ethnic Policy of January 27, 2023.
The Kyiv Metropolitanate considered the above-mentioned order to be illegal and demanded its revocation.
In order to ensure the objectivity and completeness of the study of the Statute of the UOC-MP, the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (SSEPFC/DESS) engaged five professors, doctors of science and one candidate of science to conduct a religious examination. These scholars are experts in the field of religion, church history, freedom of conscience, church-state relations, and theology with many years of experience, particularly in the study of Eastern Orthodoxy.
These specialists became part of the Expert Group to ensure the conduct of religious expertise, formed in accordance with the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of December 1, 2022, “On Certain Aspects of the Activities of Religious Organizations in Ukraine and the Application of Personal Special Economic and Other Restrictive Measures (Sanctions).”
The experts studied various documents. Among them are the following: the Statute on the Governance of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, adopted on May 27, 2022; “Charter of Alexy II, the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, by the grace of God, issued to Metropolitan Filaret of Kyiv and All Ukraine” of October 27, 1990, mentioned in the UOC Statute; The decision of the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church of October 25-27, 1990, on the status of the UOC; the current version of the Statute of the Russian Orthodox Church of 2017, two letters from the Primate of the UOC-MP, Metropolitan Onufriy, with official interpretations of the provisions of the Statute on church governance (as adopted by the UOC Council on May 27, 2022).
The court confirmed the fact that the UOC-MP sent its representative to participate in the religious examination. It was the head of the Synodal Legal Department, Archpriest Alexander Bakhov. On January 10, 2023, Bakhov participated in a meeting of the Expert Group, where he recused four members of the group. Two days after this incident, the State Service for Ethnic Policy sent a letter to Metropolitan Onufriy with a request to refute or confirm in writing the ecclesiastical and canonical connection of the UOC with the Moscow Patriarchate. The head of the religious organization did not provide any explanation.
Instead, the hierarch's letter stated that “the UOC does not question that the State Service for Ethnic Policy, in accordance with the law, has the right to conduct religious studies, but at the same time, it is noted that such examinations should be conducted objectively, transparently, by professional and impartial specialists, without violating the rights of others, including the UOC.” Metropolitan Onufriy also added that the UOC “does not refuse to participate in the religious examination and is ready to provide its explanations.”
As the court found out, the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience of the Ministry of Culture, in accordance with the Law of Ukraine “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations” and its Regulations, conducts religious studies expertise. At the same time, the plaintiff asked the court to invalidate the conclusion of the religious expert examination on the basis of formal features, “but did not put forward any comments on the essence and content of the religious expert examination itself.”
“The plaintiff did not provide evidence to prove the influence of individual views of experts on the course and outcome of the religious examination, collective and unanimous conclusions, etc. In addition, the plaintiff did not present arguments that would refute the very content of the religious expert opinion, which may indicate its objectivity,” the court decision reads.
By the way, the Kyiv District Administrative Court did not examine the merits of the conclusion of the religious expert examination of the Statute on the management of the UOC-MP of January 27, 2023.
This decision of the Kyiv District Administrative Court will come into force after the expiration of the deadline for filing an appeal, which is set aside for one month.
According to Glavkom, this is the third time in the last year and a half that the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC-MP has suffered a high-profile judicial fiasco.
On May 15, 2023, the Kyiv District Administrative Court recognized that the adoption of a new version of the Statute on the management of the UOC in 2022 did not lead to the severance of the ecclesiastical and canonical ties of this organization with the Russian Orthodox Church, that is, that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church continues to be part of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Subsequently, in late fall 2023, the appellate court confirmed the legality of the decision of the Kyiv District Administrative Court. “The appeal brought the top of the UOC-MP to a difficult choice, which they have been stubbornly resisting for the past four years: this Church is obliged to re-register and rename itself - to consolidate the canonical connection with the Russian Church in its name,” Glavkom concluded.