Petro Burkovskiy

Executive Director

Commentaries
Views: 684
15 January 2023

Two ways: How the Russian Church in Ukraine will cease to exist

Source: NV

There is no such thing as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC MP)

The Russian Church in Ukraine has no future. Moreover, the Constitutional Court recognized that the law on name change is constitutional and must be implemented. At least from this point of view, all of us — both citizens and journalists — should also adhere to this principle of legal awareness — to call a spade a spade. There is no Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC MP). There is a Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, and that's the only way it should be called. This is its essence. It is the hand of the Russian regime and the Russian special services. And from this point of view, as an institution, it has no future. It will cease to exist.

This will happen in one of two ways.

There may be a long and exhaustive path of injunctions. This could reach the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court. But there are no loopholes through which, as an institution, it can maintain its existence.

As an institution, it has no future

The other way is simply to continue to explain to our fellow citizens, to people who continue to go to these churches, that in this way they are simply supporting Russian aggression. That they are participating in the struggle on the side of Russia, on the side of the Russian Church, which blesses the murders of Ukrainians, our fellow citizens, and our soldiers, and that this is complicity in the Russian crime.

And therefore, the sooner these believers make the decision to stop going to these churches, to stop communicating with these priests, the sooner the priests admit that they were wrong, that they belonged to a church that was an instrument of Russian influence and that blessed the murders of Ukrainians, and they will form their own an independent church (this is allowed by law), or if they want, they will join the OCU. This is how the Russian church will be eradicated.

The only thing that must be mentioned here are the very wise words from the head of another denomination, Svyatoslav Shevchuk of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church: in no case should any laws on prohibitions be adopted. This step would only play into Russia’s hands. There should be a court decision that the occupier state cannot control the property of Ukrainian churches, and that people who carry out the orders of officials of the Russian special services cannot be pastors in Ukraine. This method makes sense. But not the general ban as proposed in the Verkhovna Rada. Slowly, gradually, through clarification and persuasion, people need to be pushed to the decision to leave this church and stop being an instrument of Russian influence.