The Supreme Court of Ukraine handed down a ruling recognizing as legitimate the transition of the religious community in the village of Kalynivka, Zhytomyr district, from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UPC MP) to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU).
This is the first such ruling at the highest level that recognizes the legality of such transitions. Previously, courts of first and appellate instances refused to grant the relevant claims.
“In general, the importance of this decision for the process of the transition of religious communities of Ukraine from the UOC MP to the OCU, which has been ongoing since 2019, is difficult to overestimate, because it will become a precedent for all other similar disputes and give confidence in the legality of such a transition to religious communities that are still hesitant to make a decision on withdrawal from the UOC-MP,” lawyers for the Orthodox Church of Ukraine told Ukrainska Pravda.
The ruling of the Supreme Court forms a precedent and will give confidence to other religious communities that wish to transfer from the UOC MP to the OCU.
