Poll: About half of citizens of central and southeastern Ukraine do not object to transfer of Orthodox churches to Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate
14/3/2012
Kyiv, March 13 (Interfax-Ukraine) – About a half of the citizens of central and southeastern Ukraine support the transfer of Pochayiv Lavra, Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, Sviatohirsk Lavra and Sviato-Bohoiavlensky women’s monastery to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, according to the results of a poll conducted by R&B Group and announced by group founder Yevhen Kopatko.
Kopatko said at a press conference at Interfax on Monday that 46% of those polled are for the transfer of these facilities to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), while 19%-22% do not support this idea and nearly 33%-35% are indifferent on the issue.
In general 52% of Ukrainians are for the transfer of the property belonging to the state to the church, 19% are against this idea, and 29% are indifferent. At the same time 61% of those polled agree that returning the property to the church is a restoration of the historical justice, while 28% of respondents do not agree, and 11% do not object to such a transfer.
Forty-one percent of polled are afraid that such a transfer of the churches will take them out of the cultural life of society, 29% do not share this fear and 31% are undecided.
Kopatko reported that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate had no relation to the given poll since the poll was initiated by the R&B.
“There was no order from the church,” he said.
In the poll, some 1,600 citizens from eighteen regions of Ukraine and Autonomous Republic of Crimea were polled, from February 10 to February 20. The poll’s margin of error was 2.2%.
