On August 20, 2024, the Parliament of Ukraine adopted the law “On the Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Field of Activities of Religious Organizations”, which is unofficially called “The Law on the Prohibition of the UOC”. Already on August 24, this law was signed by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi. And on August 27, an article of Sergii Bortnyk, Head of the CF “Academic Initiative”, entitled “Legislative ban of the UOC as a chance for reconciliation of Orthodox Churches in Ukraine” was published in Ukrainian.
The article proposes a procedure for getting out of the crisis, in particular in connection with the beginning of the work of the commission of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, which recently came to Ukraine for the first time and had a number of meetings with church hierarchs. In particular, the article distinguishes between the administrative and canonical subordination of the UOC to the Moscow Patriarchate and emphasizes the need for dialogue between the leadership of the UOC, the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Ukrainian state in order to overcome the crisis.
The article immediately received publicity and within a few days was translated and published in five more languages – English, German, French, Greek and Russian. Below are links to relevant publications in all six languages.
In Ukrainian – https://www.dialogtut.org/zakonodavcha-zaborona-upcz-yak-shans-dlya-prymyrennya-pravoslavnyh-czerkov-v-ukrayini/
In English – https://publicorthodoxy.org/2024/08/28/legislative-ban-on-the-uoc-and-reconciliation-in-ukraine/ and https://orthodoxtimes.com/legislative-ban-on-the-uoc-as-a-chance-for-reconciliation-among-orthodox-churches-in-ukraine/
In German – https://noek.info/hintergrund/3462-das-rechtliche-verbot-der-uok-als-chance
In Greek – https://www.orthodoxtimes.gr/efkairia-gia-symfiliosi-stin-oukrania-i-apagorefsi-tis-oukranikis-orthodoxis-ekklisias/ and https://publicorthodoxy.org/el/2024/08/28/legislative-ban-on-the-uoc-and-reconciliation-in-ukraine/
In Russian – https://publicorthodoxy.org/ru/2024/08/28/законодательный-запрет-упц-путь-к-пр/
