Kiev, September 25, 2018
Photo: spzh.news Statements about the number of parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox that are willing to move to the new Church structure, should a tomos of autocephaly be granted, do not correspond to reality, believes sociologist and historian of religion from the University of Bremen in Germany Nikolai Mitrokhin.
As he stated in a recent interview with “Echo of the Caucasus,” the number of those in the canonical Church desiring to move into the future autocephalous Church in fact only decreased over the summer period, which he spent in Ukraine.
“When I arrived in June, it was said there are ten bishops of the UOC planning to transfer,” Mitrokhin noted. “It was calculated that 30% of the parishes would immediately transfer—I’m speaking of public statements made in Ukraine by various people. The reality at present, this week, is that we have 17 priests of the UOC who support the creation of a united Church, and, really, that’s it. And there are two bishops who publicly announced their consent in July, but who have made no public declarations for the past two and a half months.”
His Eminence Metropolitan Anthony of Boryspil and Brovary, the Chancellor of the Ukrainian Church, has explained that the list of ten supposed bishops, which was even cited by His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, is a media fabrication.
The sociologist admits that about 500 parishes may move into the united Church, which is about 5% of the parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church right now.
“Overall, it gives nothing towards the domination of the future church on the territory of Ukraine,” Mitrokhin concluded.
The former deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential administration Rostislav Pavlenko earlier declared that Ukraine was creating a church for “tens of millions” who “do not see themselves in the Moscow Church.”
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