Zaporozhye, Ukraine, November 7, 2018
Photo: hramzp.ua A voluntary anonymous survey held on Sunday, October 28 shows that more than 97% of the faithful in the Zaporozhye Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are against any changes in the Church’s canonical status as a self-governing body of the Moscow Patriarchate.
The survey was conducted among the clergy, monastics, and parishioners of the Diocese’s churches and monasteries. Nearly 2,500 people participated, and, based on the questionnaire data, most respondents were educated churched people who trust the Church, the diocesan website reports.
The respondents are also very strongly against changing the language of the services from Church Slavonic to Ukrainian. 92% voted in favor of commemorating His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, with the rest, generally, not giving a definite answer.
Photo: hramzp.ua More than 85% said they trust only Church sources for information, with only 4% responding that they trust the secular media.
The faithful also expressed their support for His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine and their desire to preserve prayerful communion with the Russian Orthodox Church and the entire Orthodox world, and considered autocephaly unnecessary.
His Eminence Metropolitan Luke of Zaporozhye expressed his gratitude to the clergy and flock entrusted to him for their steadfast positions and wished them spiritual strength in these difficult times of persecution.
Also, about 91% of respondents believe there is an unjust war and genocide going on created by Ukrainian politicians.
The same support has also been expressed by the Dioceses of Kharkov, Voznesensk, Tulchin, Rivne, Kherson, Kirovograd, Severodonetsk, Odessa, Dnipropetrovsk, Krivoy Rog, Kamenka, Zaporozhye, Poltava.
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