Dumenko: UOC communities do not join OCU, as new temples are built for them

Epiphany Dumenko. Photo: vz.ua

On December 15, 2020, Epiphany Dumenko, during a speech at the “bishops' council” of the OCU, said that the communities of the UOC do not transfer to the OCU, because new churches are built for them.

The head of the OCU complained that communities and diocesan offices of the OCU in the localities "have to face subjective obstacles in registration actions, especially when it comes to changing jurisdictions."

According to him, "a number of regional state administrations unjustifiably delay the registration time, put forward unreasonable requirements for documents or return them through minor errors, such as grammatical ones."

In addition, the head of the structure, whose representatives took away more than 120 temples from the canonical Church, often resorting to physical violence, said that “if the community changes jurisdiction, it almost always faces information, physical and legal pressure from the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine, as well as political and business structures associated with it; lawsuits are filed against the OCU communities and the registrar, access to property is blocked, active parishioners are exposed to intimidation and pressure."

Dumenko also believes that "if all these methods of pressure and blackmail do not work, they use donor funds to build a new church for supporters of the Moscow Patriarchate in the village, pay money and provide material assistance to the most active supporters of the Russian Church."

“As a result, even those communities that, by an overwhelming majority of votes, made a decision to withdraw from the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine for a long time cannot implement it,” Dumenko complained.

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that according to Dumenko, his structure, whose members have forcefully seized so far more than 120 churches of the UOC, defends traditional moral and spiritual values.

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