UOC spokesman: Our Church is the biggest in Ukraine by number of believers

Ukraine is diverse in confessional terms, but the Ukrainian Orthodox Church remains the largest confession in the country by the number of parishes, communities and believers, said Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich in an interview with the Peace and Development Foundation.

“The three Galician regions are dominated by the UGCC, which has in total about 3,200 communities in Ukraine. In Volyn, Rivne and partly in Galicia, the presence of the OCU is noticeable, the total number of actually operating communities of which being a little more than 4,000. There are a lot of Protestant communities of various directions throughout the country, of which there are about 10-11 thousand in total. But for all that, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church remains the largest denomination in the country both in terms of the number of communities (12,381 parishes) and the number of practicing believers who visit churches weekly,” says Father Nikolai.

According to the spokesman of the UOC, faith cannot fully consolidate society in a political and geographical context, but it can become one of the unification factors. For this end, it is necessary that the vast majority of Ukrainians share faith in God and go to church regularly.

“In reality, temples of different confessions in Ukraine are visited by 3-7%, perhaps 10% of the population. Although, according to my observations, probably more than 90% of the population of Ukraine believe in God and recognize His existence,” said the spokesman of the UOC.

However, Father Nikolai draws attention that even if faith becomes a unifying factor, one must be wary of turning religion into a political ideology.

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that, according to Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich, the parishioners of the UOC do not experience hostility towards the OCU and the Uniates.

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