The Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Epiphany, claims that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (in unity with the Moscow Patriarchate) is increasingly losing the support of Ukrainians, while the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, on the contrary, is gaining more and more backers every day.
In an interview with NV, Metropolitan Epifaniy said the Moscow Patriarchate enjoys support of no more than 4% of the Ukrainian population.
“The OCU is supported by 55% of our fellow citizens, while no more than 4% back the UOC (MP),” Epifanii told NV.ua, commenting on the mass transition of UOC MP communities to the OCU.
The head of the OCU noted that, since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine has lost three quarters of its supporters, and counting, as seen in polls.
“It is much easier for ordinary parishioners to realize their desire – they simply stop going to churches where the Moscow Patriarchate serves. But when it comes to the clergy and communities, it is more difficult here because there are legal procedures, there is dependence on the system. Communities leave the MP according to the procedure provided for by law. But the clergy leave the MP less frequently than the communities do,” he said.
The Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine explained that it is difficult for priests to break their subordination to the UOC (MP).
“Some are afraid of prosecution, some find it difficult to admit that earlier they preached ‘non-canonicality’ of the OCU, and now they have to unite. Some confuse unity of the Church of Christ and unity of the structure of the Orthodox Church, erroneously assuming that leaving the Russian Patriarchate is the same as leaving the Church. Some hope that the wave of popular indignation will subside, and that they will continue to live as they lived, fooling people and themselves, that they do not serve the MP while remaining its part, and that all the current developments are just some artificial campaign created by the media, not a real shift in public consciousness,” said the head of the OCU.
It should be recalled that two parishes of the UOC (MP) in Khmelnytskyi region recently joined the OCU. Also, the Chernivtsi Regional Council banned the UOC (MP) in the respective region.
