The State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience conducted an examination of the new statute of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC MP). They confirmed there that the UOC MP still remains subordinate to the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC).
The press service of State Policy writes about this.
They emphasized that the examination was conducted in accordance with the decision of the National Security and Defense Council. It lasted two months, and its main purpose is to establish whether there is a canonical connection between the UOC MP and the Russian Orthodox Church.
According to the results of the examination, it can be concluded that the new statute of the UOC MP does not break its connection with the Russian Orthodox Church. The status of the UOC MP within the Russian Orthodox Church remains unchanged — it has certain rights of independence, but is not independent.
Also, the relationship between the UOC MP and the Russian Orthodox Church is not the relationship between two equal churches. The UOC MP does not have the status of an autonomous church, which would be recognized by other Orthodox churches of the world. Thus, the UOC MP remains a structural subdivision of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The members of the expert group also did not find any documents or actions that would indicate that the leadership of the UOC MP acts as an independent church or plans to declare its own independence.
- On December 1, President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine instructed the government to submit to the Verkhovna Rada a draft law banning the activities of religious organizations affiliated with Russia in Ukraine.
- At the end of November, the SBU conducted a series of searches in churches, monasteries and laurels of the UOC MP, in particular in Kyiv-Pechersk. After the presidentʼs statement, law enforcement officers began actively conducting searches throughout the country. Servants of the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate are being checked for pro-Russian activities and connections with the occupiers.
- On December 2, the National Security and Defense Council introduced personal sanctions against an ex-Deputy of Ukraine Vadym Novinsky, a vicar of the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra of the UOC Petro Lebed and a number of other priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.
- On January 19, the Cabinet of Ministers submitted to the Council draft law No. 8371, which provides for a ban on the activity of the Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine. In fact, the proposed changes to the legislation make it impossible for religious organizations with a leadership center in a state that carries out armed aggression against Ukraine to operate in Ukraine.