The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) boasts an increase in the number of its parishes abroad while the number of its congregations in Ukraine is decreasing.
The head of the UOC-MP, in an address to participants of the II Assembly of Western European clergy, expressed satisfaction with the substantial results achieved in almost two years of their ministry in the diaspora. The Church claims that the number of its parishes abroad has grown from around 30 to over 80.
However, it's worth noting that organizing parishes abroad is not a simple matter. For instance, the UOC-MP requires affiliating with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) to open its centers abroad. In October of the current year, Archimandrite Gabriel (Anisimov), deputy of the Stavropegial Men's Monastery of St. Paisius Velichkovsky located in the temporarily occupied Crimea, revealed that the UOC-MP leadership had taken over the initiative to open parishes abroad from him. He stated that the UOC-MP was using people for its own interests and mentioned that there were unofficial parishes, for example, in Milan and other Italian cities.
Archimandrite Gabriel further explained that certain agreements had been made with Protestants and Catholics, where they allowed the UOC-MP to serve in their inactive, abandoned churches. However, without the ROC's approval, they cannot officially conduct services in these churches. He shared an example of facing obstacles set by the ROC when trying to negotiate with local municipalities, indicating that the ROC hindered his efforts. Local authorities asked about the presence of the Constantinople Patriarchate and the ROC, but when it came to the UOC-MP, they claimed there was no such Church separately. Without the ROC's consent, the UOC-MP cannot officially conduct services abroad as an independent entity.