Ukrainian Orthodox parishes leaving Moscow Patriarchate for Kyiv
09/20/2014 UKRAINE – RUSSIA
by Nina Achmatova
According to reports from the Ukrainian Church-Kyiv Patriarchate, at least a dozen congregations have opted to switch with local media reporting that the shift is due to the reluctance of the clergy and faithful to accept the support of the Russian Patriarchate for the Kremlin’s policies.
Moscow (AsiaNews)
– A dozen parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow
Patriarchate have gone over to the Kyiv
Patriarchate in various parts of
the country, whilst others are planning
to canvass their members on the same issue.
On its website, Religiia v Ukraine (Religion in Ukraine) is saying that the trend is due to
the reluctance of the clergy
and faithful to follow the Moscow Patriarchate
after the latter backed Kremlin’s aggressive action towards
Ukraine, especially in Crimea
and the country’s East.
In the Volyn region, members of two communities expressed a desire to join the Kyiv
Patriarchate.
In the village of Uhriniv, the Church of the Nativity
plans to decide whether to switch even
though its pastor disagrees.
In Pechykhvosty, another pro-Moscow Patriarchate
parish collected 286
signatures on a petition, demanding that
they come under the jurisdiction of the local diocese of the Kyiv
Patriarchate. On 24 August, a new parish priest arrived who prayed for Ukraine in
his first liturgy.
On 17 August, the St Michael parish, in the Rovenskaya
region, did the same.
Earlier, another church in the same area another came under Kyiv after the local priest refused to pray for Ukrainian
soldiers involved in military operations against pro-Russian separatists
in the east.
“We do not have precise statistics,” said the head of the
information service and secretary of the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church-Kyiv
Patriarchate,” but in 2014, about ten parishes of
the Moscow Patriarchate came over to us.”
The regions
most affected by the trend are Kherson, Rivne and Chernihiv.
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