Ex-OCU Cleric: Why Do Our Churches Stand Empty?

St. Michael's Cathedral in Cherkasy one year after its seizure. Source: Pershyi Kozatskyi

Yaroslav Yasenets, who previously served in the Kyiv Eparchy of the OCU, recently published a detailed statement in which he described the systemic problems of the schismatic "church."

One of the main problems mentioned by the Yasenets is the situation with seized temples, according to a report from the UOJ's Ukraine branch. Yasenets says that many churches taken from the UOC stand practically empty.

“Often the UOC community remains with its priest, their temple is taken away, and they celebrate the liturgy and pray elsewhere. And the temple transferred to the OCU stands empty,” notes Yasenets. “You don’t have to go far. Anyone can open the internet, Google, YouTube and search for these proofs there, because there are a lot of photos and videos.”

As an example, he cites St. Michael's Cathedral in Cherkasy, which was seized in October 2024.

“The activists who participated in the seizure later showed no desire to systematically pray and receive communion in this temple, as a result of which it almost completely emptied, despite its huge size. Anyone can open the internet and look at photos of services,” he emphasized.

At the same time, he stresses that after the seizures, the number of UOC parishioners does not decrease:

It’s worth asking ourselves: what are we doing wrong compared to the hated Muscovites, that people go to them and are often ready to even pray in adapted premises, defend their churches with their chests, while our temples and altars are emptying? Why do churches transferred to the OCU by hook or by crook stand empty? Could it be that all the parishioners and clergy of the UOC work for Moscow and are fed from Putin’s generous hand?

He gives the example of Chernivtsi, where in June 2025 Roman Hryshchuk and Ivan Chokalyuk tried to organize the seizure of the cathedral, but UOC Metropolitan Meletiy brought out several thousand parishioners to defend it.

“Are we going to think that all these several thousand parishioners were paid from FSB funds? Maybe it’s time to stop blaming mythical external enemies for everything and start asking ourselves critical questions,” Yasenets declares.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that a well-known OCU cleric had left the "church" due to disagreement with its leader, Epifany Dumenko.

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