On November 4, 2020, a seminar of the Ukrainian Christian Academic Society (UCAS) “Sobornicity and laity” was held in the format of a ZOOM conference. Among the speakers there were Archpriest Dr. Andriy Chirovsky, Archimandrite Dr. Cyril Hovorun, Dr. Anatoliy Babynsky.
The report of Dr. Sergii Bortnyk was entitled:
The speaker highlighted three levels of the Church existence and its responsibility. The first is the level of hierarchy or episcopate; the second is the level of the Eucharistic community, which is generally identified with the parish headed by a priest; the third is the level of believers who are aware of their faith and are ready to bear different kinds of responsibility for their community and for their Church as a whole.
In his report Sergii Bortnyk analyzed concrete examples of the implementation of general principles into the reality of the Church life in Ukraine. He stressed the need to distinguish between the secular people (“cosmics”) and the faithful (“laymen”), who can be contrasted as declared nominal faithful and real parishioners. He also drew attention to the statistics provided by the competing Orthodox jurisdictions.
Finally, he stressed the need for the state to strengthen the level of religious awareness of the citizens to maintain “moderate religiosity without unnecessary emphasis on the interfaith conflicts, which would be the basis for balanced relationships between the state and religious communities in Ukraine”. You can read more about the content of the seminar at.