Dumenko: UOC communities belong to the OCU, although they do not want it

Sergei (Epiphany) Dumenko, Patriarch Bartholomew and Petro Poroshenko. Photo: gov.ua

In an interview with Radio Svoboda, the head of the OCU, Sergei (Epiphany) Dumenko, stated that absolutely all communities in Ukraine, including those in the UOC, belong to the OCU.

Those who "do not recognize this reality," according to Dumenko, create a "certain canonical collapse." The fact that the believers of the UOC "temporarily want to belong to the ROC (as Dumenko calls the UOC – Ed.)" is "canonically wrong."

Speaking about the "transitions" of the UOC communities into its structure, Dumenko complained that "the situation has suspended a bit lately," and now there are only "isolated cases". But at the same time, he claims that it is wrong to call these transitions as transitions, because “they (UOC communities – Ed.) are actually based in Ukraine. Moreover, according to the decisions that were made by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, they all belong to the OCU."

Earlier, the head of the OCU said that there is a problem with the registration of religious communities in the country and insisted on the creation of a separate unit within the RSA.

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