Poll: Less than Half of Odesa Residents Trust the Orthodox Church

ODESA — Today less than half of Odesa residents (39.8%) personally trust the Orthodox Church. At the same time, one third of the respondents believe that the authority of the Orthodox Church in the society has been on the increase. The poll was conducted by the Odesa branch of the Kyiv Horshenin’s Institute of Management Problems.

According to the results, one fifth of the Odesa residents observe Lent and pray daily. According to Odessa Daily, the majority (62,5%) paint Easter eggs. In general, two thirds of the residents positively evaluate the role of the Orthodox Church in the life of Ukraine.  Of the respondents 39,2% call themselves believers belonging to no particular religious community. One hundred respondents older than 18 were questioned.

Earlier, the press secretary of the Odesa Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate stated that nearly 90% of the residents are Orthodox Christians. The director of the Center of Comparative Religious Research, Edward Martyniuk, noted that this statement is only a polemic exaggeration.