Khmelnytskyi region, where the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) used to be really popular, has today become Ukraine’s leader in the number of conversions of religious communities to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). Khmelnytskyi Mayor Oleksandr Simchyshyn spoke about this in an interview with Glavcom.
The official noted that the Khmelnytskyi City Council is preparing a resolution to terminate the right of hostile religious organizations to use land plots. In his opinion, this stimulates the process of transition away from the Moscow Church.
“In order to stimulate the process of our religious communities moving away from the Russian Orthodox Church, the City Council’s Land Resources Department has been instructed to prepare a draft resolution to terminate the right to use land by hostile religious organizations, including the Russian Orthodox Church,” he said.
The mayor of Khmelnytskyi stressed that local authorities are trying to facilitate the transition of communities from the Moscow Church, but the final decision shall be made by the communities themselves.
“The UOC-MP was very popular here: it seems that as of 2018, the region was almost No. 1 in terms of the number of parishes. In terms of the number of believers, it was, of course, inferior to the Kyiv Patriarchate before and now to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Currently, Khmelnytskyi region is the leader in the number of transitions from the UOC-MP to the OCU. We try to help people in this way: more than a hundred parishes have moved within the region, 14 within the Khmelnytskyi community. At the same time, they have three or four times more parishioners. There are those who refuse for various reasons: maybe they are FSB agents, pro-Russian people, or have purely religious reasons. But decisions are made by communities and this process continues,” the official said.
Simchyshyn also said that in most cases, the community’s transition to the OCU takes place without conflicts over the transfer of churches. According to him, opponents of the transition from the UOC-MP are always a minority.
“Recently, some are trying to spark controversy, but when 600 people are in favor of the transition and 30 are against, everything immediately becomes clear. The will of the community that wants to pray in their Ukrainian church is sacred here. And those who still hesitate should obey this will. They are coming up with some changes to the statutes, but it is enough to visit the ROC website to see: they still have branches all over Ukraine,” he said.
We will add that according to the draft decision prepared by the Khmelnytskyi authorities, the right of permanent use of land plots will be taken away from the churches of the UOC-MP in the city. These areas will be returned to community ownership. During the special session, deputies of the city council also supported the appeal to the National Security and Defense Council and the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to speed up consideration of the bill banning churches and other religious organizations subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate and threatening Ukraine’s national security.
It should be recalled that earlier, the head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Epifaniy, declared that new communities join the Orthodox Church of Ukraine almost every day. He expressed hope that in time, all Orthodox Ukrainians will be part of the single local autocephalous church.
Since the Russian occupiers began a full-scale war against Ukraine, communities from the UOC to the Moscow Patriarchate have begun to shift to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Their number has already exceeded 400.
Most communities have moved to the OCU in Khmelnytskyi region (more than 100).
