Ministry of Culture advises how to move to OCU correctly

Andrei Yurash explains on the Ukrainian TV channel how to transfer to OCU in the right way

The head of the Department for Religious Affairs and Nationalities of the Ministry of Culture Andrei Yurash said on the “Espresso.TV” channel that “every religious organization decides its own fate” and the “mass transfer” will not allow the “Russian Church” to radically change the situation.

“If within the community there is a desire to get out of the subordination of some religious centre, they should hold a meeting,” the official said. “They have to put two or three points of view on the vote to be discussed and vote. Which majority in this community will have an advantage, such will be the fate of this community.”

According to the official, after this, the church property becomes the property of the re-registered community.

If, however, supporters of the OCU are in the minority, then, in the opinion of the public official, they should not be left with anything. Yurash thinks that OCU adherents, regardless of their number, will have the right to the turn-based service.

“A church is never used around the clock. Even on holidays and weekends, services take place only at certain times in the church. It is easy to give this temple for alternate service,” the representative of the Ministry of Culture stressed.

At the same time, Yurash complained that anti-church bill No. 4128, which, according to many experts, is designed to legalize church raiding, has not yet been adopted.

Nevertheless, the official is sure that the process of transition of religious communities to the OCU will soon gain momentum, “especially in the western, central regions”: “It will not be single transitions but hundreds. I predict a total of thousands of transfers in Ukraine.”

As the UOJ reported, earlier the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Andrei Parubiy promised to initiate the MPs’ voting for bill No. 4128 “On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations” (regarding changes in the subordination of religious communities)” as soon as possible.

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