Expert from Germany studies the number of UOC and OCU believers at worship

The Holy Intercession Cathedral of the OCU in the inhabited area near the railway station is designed for more than 1000 people but is only 15% full. Photo: Facebook

Nikolai Mitrokhin, a sociologist and religious scholar from Germany, conducted an investigation to examine how many believers had gathered in the temples of the UOC and the OCU for Sunday worship. Mitrokhin shared the results of his investigation on his Facebook page.

According to Mitrokhin, the research area is Solomenka District of Kiev. In 6 temples of the canonical Church (3 of them had 3 liturgies), the religious scholar counted 990 parishioners, while in 4 temples and chapels of the OCU – 365 people.

In the 500-person temple of Metropolitan Alexander (Drabinko) from the OCU, only 15 people received the Holy Communion at the early “liturgy”, and only 1 person visited the chapel on the territory of the SBU National Academy given that “there are huge houses and the residential complex nearby, as well as the Academy’s dorms,” the expert said.

“Two temples of the OCU in Teremki can serve a compact residential area of 20 thousand people to say the least, but in total there were 280 people (three liturgies),” he added.

According to the researcher, a completely different situation is in the temples of the canonical Church.

“At the UOC temples, every second one is packed with believers, and in one case (the temple in the park of Solomenka district) there were people standing outside (there were amplifiers for them),” Mitrokhin emphasized.

He said that he was not able to go around all the temples of Solomenka district but checked about 2/3 of them and visited all the largest ones.

Earlier, the UOJ published data from the journalistic investigation conducted by the head of the Office of Zaporizhia Diocese of the UOC, Archpriest Gennady Yelin, who published a graphic illustration of how many activists of the OCU attend their “services” in Zaporozhia. The priest of the canonical Church also reminded the public about the statements of the head of the OCU Epiphany Dumenko, according to which the temples of the new church structure in large cities supposedly cannot room everyone, and therefore they need to expand, as well as about mass seizures of the UOC temples.

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