Kiev-Pechersk Lavra
The religious examination of the charter of the UOC (MP) showed the existence of a church-canonical connection with the ROC.
The religious expertise of the charter of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) showed the existence of a church-canonical connection with the Russian Orthodox Church, the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience reports.
“The State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, within two months, ensured the conduct of a religious examination of the Charter on the management of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church for the presence of a church-canonical connection with the Moscow Patriarchate (Russian Orthodox Church). To accomplish this task, an Expert Group was created, which included five professors, doctors of sciences and one candidate of sciences – specialists in the field of religion, church history, freedom of conscience, state-confessional relations, theology, who have professional scientific publications on history, sociology, philosophy, religion in general and in the field of Eastern Orthodoxy in particular” , – the press service of the State Ethnopolitics says.
It is noted that the expert group came to the conclusion that the adoption of a new version of the Charter on the management of the UOC (MP) (dated May 27, 2022) and the Resolution of the Council of the UOC (MP) did not lead to a rupture of the church-canonical connection of the UOC with the Russian Orthodox Church, but The charter of the UOC (MP) as a structural subdivision of the ROC, which enjoys certain rights of independence, but does not create an autocephalous Church, remains unchanged.
Also, according to the conclusions, the relationship of the UOC (MP) with the ROC is not the relationship of one independent (autocephalous) church with another independent autocephalous church.
“The UOC also does not have the status of an autonomous Church, which would be recognized by other churches, and, therefore, from the point of view of ecclesiology and canon law, it is a structural subdivision of the ROC, which has separate rights of independent formation without its own canonical subjectivity,” the report says.
In addition, the expert group came to the conclusion that the current activity or inaction of the highest bodies of church authority and administration of the UOC (MP) indicates that the UOC (MP) continues to be in relation to the ROC in a relationship of subordination.
“It does not act as an independent (autocephalous) Church and does not proclaim its own independence (autocephaly). Members of the Expert Group did not find any documents or actions indicating the transformation of the UOC into an independent religious organization relative to the ROC,” the ministry emphasizes.
Recall that President Volodymyr Zelensky, by his decree, put into effect the decision of the National Security and Defense Council to expand the list of sanctions that are imposed on the governor of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra Pavel (Lebed), other hierarchs of the UOC-MP and former MP Vadim Novinsky.
Earlier, in the Mukachevo diocese of the UOC-MP, they sang a “song about Bandera”, changing the words, “to the glory” of their leader Onufriy.
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