President of Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) Pavlo Grod spoke about the results of the dialogue with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I on the need to expand the activity of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine beyond Ukraine. In his opinion, such measures are important to curb the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church and Russian propaganda on the Ukrainian diaspora.
“When someone comes, emigrates from Ukraine, they look for a church, which is one of the main things. If there is no Ukrainian Orthodox Church to go to, they immediately switch to the Russian Orthodox Church. And we all know that the ROC is the ‘hand of the Kremlin,’ even in the diaspora. That is why it is important that we be able to create or open Ukrainian Orthodox churches in the diaspora. I talked about this with the Ecumenical Patriarch,” Pavlo Grod told Radio Svoboda on Saturday’s Interview.
According to the UWC leader, religious strategy is an important factor for Ukrainians abroad and is a powerful tool to counter the “Russian world.” That is why he believes it is necessary to expand the scope of the tomos of OCU autocephaly to the territories beyond Ukraine.
“It’s about expanding the borders even more, giving the OCU jurisdiction to operate outside Ukraine. And in our conversation, I would say, the Ecumenical Patriarch (Bartholomew I – ed.) was very open to this. So we will try to work with him to this end. We represent civil society. And sometimes we can say things that our clergy can’t speak about, but we can speak on behalf of the laity,” Pavlo Grod assured.
