Russian Orthodox Church expects the Ukrainian authorities to "stop the persecution of the UOC-MP"

This was stated in an interview on the channel “Russia 24” by the head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Hilarion, the ROC website reports.

“We know how this so-called transition of communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to a schismatic entity actually took place. In most cases, there was not a single voluntary transition, but there was a seizure of churches. Moreover, this is kind of seizure, which was accompanied by violence, beatings, believers were expelled from churches, priests were thrown out to the street. Many churches that were taken away from the canonical Ukrainian Church are now locked up, and those communities that were expelled perform services in the open air or should huddle in some rented premises. New churches have already been built somewhere to replace the captured ones, but all this lawlessness that was created under President Poroshenko has not yet received a proper assessment of the international community. Now this assessment has been given, which is important in itself,” Hilarion said.

He noted that if the Ukrainian authorities want to “stop this wave of persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, they have all the opportunities for this.”

The transition of church communities to the OCU is the process of transition of parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which began after the creation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) as a result of the Unification Council on December 15, 2018. Since the beginning of 2019, Ukraine has been implementing a law that establishes and regulates the right of religious communities to change their subordination. It made it easier for communities that were part of the UOC (Moscow Patriarchate) to move to the canonical autocephalous Local Orthodox Church of Ukraine. All transitions are based on the results of voting by the believers themselves.

In two years, about 700 parishes have joined the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, said the Primate of the OCU, Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kyiv and all Ukraine in the interview with Radio Liberty.

In Ukraine, there are 7,097 religious organizations that belong to the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), and 12,410 – of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is in communion with the Moscow Patriarchate. This is stated in the response of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy to the request of Radio Liberty received on December 28.

The statistical report referred to by the ministry contains data that is almost a year outdated (as of 01.01.2020). For the first time, they were published in the order of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine No. 1657 dated 14.04.2020.

Here is the list of religious communities that have left the UOC-MP to join the OCU.