Ukraine wants to unite the churches by summer and resolve conflicts between the Orthodox: two out of three steps have already been taken. Tells "Gromad"

Original: "Gromad"

What is a local church?

The Local Church is a union of all Orthodox believers on a territorial principle. The Local Church acts as a counterweight of the Ecumenical one, becomes independent and self-governing in a particular state and usually meets political and administrative division and state borders. In the case of Ukraine, we are talking about a single Orthodox church for all Orthodox believers within the Ukrainian borders.

Orthodoxy in Ukraine: numbers

Polls of 2015 say: most Ukrainians, 44%, attributed themselves to the Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate. The parishioners of the Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate considered himself 21% of believers, and 11 percent attributed themselves to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic.

The creation of a single independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church was supported by almost 40% of Ukrainians, 18% spoke out against, and 23% said they did not care.

The church has recently been a leader in the trust of Ukrainians. But in 2017, she had to give first place to volunteer organizations - they gathered 66.7% of the vote. The confidence of the church was expressed by 64.4%, and the armed forces of Ukraine from 57.3% of the vote were in third place.

Who is “for”, how much “against”?

To create a local church, it is necessary to appeal from the hierarchs of the Ukrainian Orthodox churches about the readiness to unite. The next procedure - the president, enlisted the support of the parliament, asks the universal Patriarch on the signing of the decree on the creation of the local church and providing it with autonomy. Both of these steps have already been taken, and now Ukraine is waiting for a decision.

The president was supported by two Orthodox churches of Ukraine - the Kyiv Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.

“We express our hope that among the Bishop of the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate there are responsible hierarchs who really worry about the future of Orthodoxy in Ukraine and will support efforts regarding the canonical recognition by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Ukrainian Church Independence,” the statement published on the website of the UOC -Communist Party of the Communist Party said.

The representative of the Moscow Patriarchate, Archpriest of the UOC MP Nikolai Danilievich, in a response, suggested that Poroshenko raised this topic, "to stay for a second term." The archpriest is pessimistic: “There were failures on this topic, but I don’t remember the winnings,” he writes.

Conflict resolution and expert doubts

The head of the initiative group “For the Unified Local Church” and the parishioner of the UOC -MP Yaroslav Mishchenko is sure that the independent church will resolve the conflicts in the parishes of Kyiv and in the parishes of the Moscow Patriarchate, which continue to arise in the country - especially after Crimea and events in the east of the country.

“One side considers the second to be inferior, so in the regions different people begin the struggle for the church. The Local Church provides for a dialogue between parishioners, the creation of an autocephalous priesthood in the regions will help to build one line on which the parishioners will go, ”she said.

Sociologist Alexander Vishnya, factory department of the Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences, said that he did not see real chances for creating a local church in Ukraine. Indeed, for 26 years, no president has yet been able to unite Orthodoxy in Ukraine. The reason is the constant resistance of the church community of the Church of the Moscow Patriarchate: "With the presentation of Moscow, believers of the Moscow Patriarchate consider themselves the only Ukrainian church, and all other church communities must reach for them."

Despite this, the president called on deputies to support the appeal to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople to create a local church in Ukraine. He hopes that the Unified Ukrainian Independent Church will receive Tomos - a special decree on the creation of a local church until the 1030 anniversary of the baptism of Rus' - that is, this summer.