The full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war aggravated the situation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. This is due to some examples of cooperation between its clerics and the occupiers, and to its formal connection to the Moscow Patriarchate, despite the evidence in its charter in its current form that “its center is in Kyiv”. On the other hand, thousands of UOC believers selflessly serve in the Ukrainian army, hundreds of parishes actively help the armed forces of Ukraine, etc.
One can speak about the differences between the official position of the senior church leadership and the realities on the ground level – and these realities will differ significantly depending on the region. Often one hears about the crisis of communication of the senior leadership of the UOC with both the state and the civil society.
Complexity of the situation in the legal plane lies in the fact that for more than six months in the Parliament of Ukraine there are a number of bills aimed at banning the activities of the UOC. In particular, this is the draft law no. 8371 of January 19, 2023 “Draft Law on Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine on the Activities of Religious Organizations in Ukraine”, initiated by the Prime Minister of Ukraine.
Recently, several meetings of the head of the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience Viktor Yelensky with the Primate of the UOC Metropolitan Onufry and his representatives took place. Representatives of the state are pushing the UOC to certain steps that would clearly indicate independence of its politics from the church structures in Moscow. Among such possible steps are letters that would clarify the position of the UOC leadership in the current difficult situation. So far, there have been no such official letters signed by the senior leadership of the UOC.
In this situation of request from the state and the civil society for an articulated position of the UOC, the editorial board of the project “Dialogue Here” (https://www.dialogtut.org/), in cooperation with our foundation, prepared projects of two letters – to the head of the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience Viktor Yelensky and to the Orthodox local churches. The letters attempt to formulate a possible response to critical rebukes against the UOC and offer a balanced vision of a way out of the crisis situation. The text of the letters can be found here:
- “Open letter to Viktor Yelensky, Head of the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience” in Ukrainian original – https://www.dialogtut.org/lyst-vid-upcz-u-vidpovid-dess-yakym-vin-mig-by-buty/.
- “Letter of the UOC to the local Orthodox Churches” in Ukrainian original – https://www.dialogtut.org/lyst-upcz-do-pomisnyh-pravoslavnyh-czerkov-yakym-vin-mig-by-buty/