Ministry of Culture sets its seal on liquidation of Kiev Patriarchate

Head of the UOC-KP Filaret Denisenko. Photo: pomisna.info

The Ministry of Culture of Ukraine has officially confirmed that the Kiev Patriarchy of the liquidated UOC-KP ceased to exist by having joined the Kiev Metropolis of the OCU and fully transferred to its competence. The corresponding statement of the Ministry was published today, July 31, 2019.

The Ministry of Culture noted that this statement is a response “to speculative charges about the alleged interference of state bodies in religious affairs” and is designed to get ahead of “the emergence and replication of statements about any alleged renewal of the activities of the former UOC-KP and the functioning of the former center of this religious association.”

The statement recalled that after the registration of the Statute of the religious organization "Kiev Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Orthodox Church)”, based on the decisions of the Local Council of the UOC-KP dated December 15, 2014, the religious association Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kiev Patriarchate "ceased its activities, while the religious organization ‘Kiev Patriarchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kiev Patriarchate’, which, in accordance with its Statute (para 1), was a religious administrative center and central executive-administrative body of the UOC-KP (...) became a part of the religious association ‘Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Orthodox Church of Ukraine)’."

"All the functions of the statutory bodies of the former UOC-KP have been transferred under the competence of the relevant governing bodies of the UOC (OCU), which received all the powers and legal grounds for making appropriate decisions regarding the future of those religious organizations that were part of the former religious association UOC-KP," the document says. “The Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Orthodox Church), as a governing body of this association, at its meeting on July 27, 2019 (Journal No. 43) decided to terminate the activities of the religious organization "Kiev Patriarchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kiev Patriarchate" by joining the religious organization "Kiev Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Orthodox Church)", about which a corresponding entry was made in the Unified State Register of Physical and Legal Entities - Enterprises and Public Formations”, specified the Ministry of Culture.

The statement underlines that “all actions of officials of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine responsible for registration of statutes and state registration of religious organizations were, are and will be committed in the future exclusively within the framework of the legislation of Ukraine”, and “any attempts to block the process of state registration of a number of religious organizations , which once were part of the religious association with the same name" and decided to join the OCU, "can be interpreted as an incursion in the activities of officials - state registrars of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine".

“We note that the fifth part of Article 6 of the Law of Ukraine" On State Registration of Legal Entities, Individuals - Entrepreneurs and Public Formations" stipulates that the intervention of any bodies, their officials, citizens, legal entities and public formations that do not have the status of a legal entity, in the activities of the state registrar during the conduct of registration actions, except for the cases provided for by this Law, is prohibited and entails responsibility in accordance with the law," warns the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine.

As the UOJ reported, the head of the Kiev Patriarchate, Filaret Denisenko, said that the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, together with the Ministry of Justice and the OCU, is engaged in the illegal liquidation of the UOC-KP Statute, calling on the "clergy" of the UOC-KP not to re-register their parish statutes in favor of the OCU.

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