Ukrainian Orthodox Church to Organize Parishes in the Diaspora Under Its Jurisdiction

Metropolitan Onufriy of Kiev and All Ukraine. Pic- Wiki

OCP News Service – 13/6/2022

Kiev-Ukraine: The Ukrainian Orthodox Church, as per the decision of the Local Council have decided to organize parishes under its direct jurisdiction in the diaspora, according to Archpriest Mykola Danylevych, Deputy Head of the UOC External Church Relations Department. He stated that Ukrainian believers attended Churches of ROC or ROCOR pre-war times, and then stopped going in connection with the war, and now they do not go anywhere. When the war broke out, our faithful from different countries began to appeal to the Metropolitan of Kiev to open parishes under his omophorion. Hence as shepherds, we must respond to their requests A. In any case, the task of our Church is the pastoral care of our faithful, wherever they may be.”

He further added that “we intend to open parishes of our Church only in those countries where there are no autocephalous Orthodox Churches, in particular in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, etc. (around19 countries in Europe). However, we will not open parishes on our own in countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, Greece, Albania, because there are Local Orthodox Churches and this is the canonical territory of those Churches. By the way, some of the mentioned Churches have already asked us to send Ukrainian priests to their jurisdiction to take care of our faithful”.

Moscow Patriarchate Receives Crimean Dioceses Under Its Jurisdiction: Warns of Schism in Ukraine

Followed by the decision of the Council of Bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), to be fully independent of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Onufriy of Kiev and All Ukraine has refrained from commemorating Patriarch Kirill as the head of the Church. Presently, Patriarch Kirill is being commemorated as the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, and not as the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Source:
OCP News Service