UOC-MP is unlikely to survive in prewar formats, - Cyril Hovorun

Archimandrite Cyril Hovorun, a religious scholar and professor at Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles), expressed this opinion in the interview with Radio NV.

"On the one hand, we see the Orthodox Church of Ukraine — the autocephalous one, which received its Tomos in early 2019, as a consolidated force in Ukraine. It is really growing [thanks to] the parishes that join it.

On the other hand, we actually see the fragmentation of the UOC-MP in Ukraine-people and parishes are confused. The parishioners extensively leave the Church, and priests do not know what to do about it — they are literally between the hammer and the anvil. On the one hand, demands from people to do something to change the status of the UOC-MP are being voiced, and on the other hand, they experience pressure from bishops who do not allow doing this even under the threat of suspension. Those priests who try, for example, to join the OCU get suspended," he said.

Archimandrite Cyril believes that the idea of holding an all-Church meeting to develop a common position on the future life of the Church is unlikely to change anything.

"This division and fragmentation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is probably the biggest problem for this Church. Obviously, it is unlikely to survive in the formats in which it existed before the war, and they are now trying to do something about it. The Synod of the UOC-MP was held, at which it decided to hold a consultative meeting in order to discuss this issue. But this decision resembles an attempt to "blow steam" — to discuss this issue without solving the problem that actually exists deep inside this entity," he stressed.