Kiev, August 20, 2024
spzh.live
The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s Parliament, voted overwhelmingly today to adopt the infamous bill 8371 on the banning of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
According to the Union of Orthodox Journalists, 265 deputies voted for the bill “On the Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Sphere of Activity of Religious Organizations,” while only 29 voted against it and another 4 abstained.
The new law, which awaits the signature of President Zelensky, outlaws any religious organization that is centered in Russia, known as an “aggressor country” in Ukrainian legislation.
According to the law, the parish and monastery communities of the UOC will have 9 months to sever ties with the Russian Church.
Although the Local Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church voted to separate itself from the Moscow Patriarchate already in May 2022, as reflected in the Church’s updated statutes [full text of the statutes available here], the Ukrainian state continues to brand it as a Russian Church as a justification for its persecution of the Church.
Bill 8371 was adopted in its first reading back in October, and now being adopted in its second reading, it will soon pass into law.
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