The final adoption of a law prohibiting religious organizations in Ukraine associated with Russia will compel the faithful and clergy of the UOC-MP to take action and responsibility. In their current status, their communities will not be able to exist.
The Deputy Head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Yevstratiy (Zoria), shared this opinion in an interview with Radio NV.
According to him, many people are still staying within the Moscow Patriarchate, hoping that the problem will be resolved somehow without their active involvement.
"As they have waited so far, hoping that nothing would be done, everyone would remain blind, deaf, and mute and not react to the pro-Russian activities that are effectively covered by the leadership headed by Metropolitan Onufriy, tolerating all the traitors, all the collaborators, etc. None of them has faced canonical church penalties for their criminal activities that contravene, in particular, the norms of canon law. At the same time, those who unite with the Ukrainian church immediately face various bans and punishments," the Metropolitan said.
He reminded that according to the provisions of the bill if a religious community does not voluntarily sever its ties with Moscow, it will not be able to operate in Ukraine.
"It is extremely important for the faithful and clergy who are still within the Moscow Patriarchate to understand their own responsibility. They should not wait for someone up there - Metropolitan Onufriy, his Synod, or their bishops - to make decisions and not be held responsible for those decisions. According to Ukrainian law, a religious community has the right to leave the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. And their canonical duty is to join the Orthodox Church of Ukraine," Yevstratiy (Zoria) is confident.
“The Orthodox Church of Ukraine opened its doors to everyone even before receiving the Tomos of Autocephaly in 2019. However, even after Russia's full-scale invasion by UOC-MP supporters, there was scepticism about the OCU.
"It is obvious that they have a deep influence of the 'Russian world' ideology in their mindset. And they are simply not ready to acknowledge that the structure in which they served and worked, some for decades, is responsible. Morally, they share responsibility for everything happening in Ukraine. And they want to shift this responsibility onto someone else," concluded the Metropolitan.