UOC KP is a failed project of Single Church, – Protopriest Sergiy Yushchik

First Vice-Rector of Kiev Theological Academy and Seminary, Candidate of Theology, Protopriest Sergiy Yuschik

This opinion was voiced by the rector of the capital’s Holy Resurrection Church in memory of the victims and veterans of Afghanistan of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Protopriest Sergiy Yuschik, in the program ”Playing with fire: Is there a necessity to create a single local church in Ukraine?” on ZIK TV channel.

According to him, Kyiv Patriarchate is a first unsuccessful attempt to establish by politicians a Single Local Church, since it did not take into account the nature of the Church and its laws.

The Spokesman of the UOC explained that "the Local Church is one of the forms of expressing the existence of the Ecumenical Church and Local Church is the Church that possesses the fullness of the Orthodox Sacraments."

"This fullness is vested in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church just like the Ecumenical Church," said Protopriest Sergiy Yushchik. "I want a canonical Orthodox Church, in which I will legitimately be baptized and legally buried."

"We must live according to the laws of the Church and comply with the laws, whereas the media provoke a different opinion," he said.

Father Sergiy set an example with the Patriarch of Jerusalem, who unites different political entities. "Since this issue is very painful for us in Ukraine and we are talking about the wound of the society, and personally for me it is also a wound – for I served as a priest for 12 years in western Ukraine, but let's look at the precedent of other states," explained the priest. “The Jerusalem Patriarch is canonical, "correct". He serves both in Jerusalem and in Bethlehem. We do not forget that cities are in countries that are permanently waging war with each other.”

"The fact is that the Church lives by its own laws, and not by political expediency," he concluded.

It should be noted that the ZIK television viewers were asked not to vote for the "Single Local Church", but for the "Single Church of Kyiv Patriarchate" or "Moscow". As the program host noted at the end, "viewers of this channel vote in this way: 82.2% believe that there should be a single church of the Kyiv Patriarchate and 17.8% of the Moscow Patriarchate, that is, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church."

However, the organization of the poll itself is puzzling: the screenshots of the video show that at the beginning, at 5:10 by timing (when data on voting appear for the first time), the UOC – 100% of the vote, while the Kyiv Patriarchate – 0%. But by 5:16 it's the opposite: the Kyiv Patriarchate has 100%, the UOC – 0%.

And from that moment on the UOC begins to garner percents, while the KP begins to lose them, up to the final figures.

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