UOC MP to once again collect signatures against the law on renaming the Russian Orthodox Church

This statement was made by participants of the congress of the UOC-MP supporters in the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, according to Glavkom.

In particular, the participants of the event call on the authorities to influence the Constitutional Court in order to resolve their own interests, which is actually a violation of the Constitution.

"Possible ways to solve this problem could be a decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine on the unconstitutionality of this law or recognition by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the current convocation of the error made by the previous convocation of the Verkhovna Rada of the illegal nature of this law and correction of this error by repealing this law. The history of Parliamentarism in Ukraine knows cases of cancellation by the Verkhovna Rada of previously adopted decisions as illegal, so there is reason to hope for wisdom and truly statist, and not populist and adventurous thinking of MPs of Ukraine of the current convocation," the document says.

To put pressure on the authorities, representatives of the UOC-MP announce the collection of signatures on the need to repeal the law.

"It seems appropriate to announce a new collection of signatures of citizens under the appeal regarding the need for such cancellation," the authors of the document summed up.

The event was attended by representatives of the Moscow Church, the Polish and Serbian Orthodox Churches, MPs of Ukraine, public figures, and religious experts.

Back in 2018, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a law obliging religious organizations to indicate their belonging to Russia in their names, if any.

At the beginning of 2020, the Ministry of Culture indicated a list of churches that were supposed to do this. In particular, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate was supposed to change its name to the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine.

We provide, in April of this year, the UOC MP boasted to have collected 1,060,238 signatures under appeals to President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, the Cabinet of Ministers and other government institutions regarding "discriminatory laws" against the Moscow Patriarchate.