Yurash: Events in the Sea of Azov may speed up the creation of SLC

Director of the Department for Religions and Nationalities of the Ministry of Culture Andrei Yurash

The events that occurred in the Azov Sea will not affect the religious sphere. At the same time, they can accelerate the process of creating the Single Local Church in Ukraine. This was reported on November 26 by Andrei Yurash, director of the Department for Religion and Nationalities at the Ministry of Culture, in an interview with IA ZIK.

“Of course, this is a complication of the political and general sociopolitical situation in Ukraine, but, firstly, it does not directly concern the religious sphere, secondly, it can further catalyze everything that happens in society, what society is waiting for,” noted the official of the Ministry of Culture. “It can encourage large community groups to quickly realize their strategic expectations of the Single Local Church which the Ukrainian public has been striving for – not to mention for decades, if we mean the continuous process of the recent period of independence, but even for centuries, if we talk about the beginning of this process."

On November 26, the Verkhovna Rada backed the proposal of Petro Poroshenko to impose martial law in certain regions of Ukraine owing to the conflict in the Kerch Strait. As spokesman of the Parliament Andrei Parubiy said, martial law will not halt the process of creating the SLC.

The Institute of Religious Freedom explained that the imposition of martial law in Ukraine does not restrict the right to freedom of religion, but the right to outdoor religious events or processions.

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