UOC MP claims its foreign parishes have no ties to ROC

A document adopted by the clergy of the Western European Vicariate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate during a meeting in Bari, Italy, on February 6, 2026, states the following, according to the Information and Education Department of the UOC-MP, as reported by Relihiina Pravda.

The authors of the document emphasize the need to “continue developing the mission abroad among Orthodox Ukrainians to preserve their faith, culture, language, and Orthodox identity.”

They note that foreign parishes are under the jurisdiction of the primate, Metropolitan Onufriy. Services are conducted in Church Slavonic and Ukrainian, as well as in the language of the host country when necessary. The maintenance of these parishes is funded by the parishioners.

The vicariate considers it slanderous to equate the activities of UOC-MP parishes with those of the ROC parishes abroad. They assert that UOC-MP parishes operate “independently and separately, regardless of any religious centers” and do not serve in ROC churches.

Additionally, they claim that the locations where services are held “are not near critical or military facilities in the countries of residence.”

The document concludes that without the parishes of the UOC-MP, Ukrainians “within other structures, which are foreign to them in language and culture, are doomed to assimilation.”