OCU spokesman: UOC appropriated our name to itself

Eustratiy Zoria. Photo: rozmova.wordpress.com

Spokesman of the OCU Eustratiy Zoria said that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church appropriated the name of the Dumenko structure, reports the Center for Political Consulting.

Commenting on the anti-church bills submitted to the Verkhovna Rada, Zoria said that “although there is no ban as such on the MP yet, the enemies of Ukraine are already using the narrative about the alleged persecution of religious communities in Ukraine.”

The spokesman of the OCU referred the son of former US President Donald Trump to the enemies of Ukraine. According to Zoria, in one of the messages, Trump Jr. “directly accuses President Zelenskyy of banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.”

“But, sorry, this is complete nonsense, because the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is us. This is our official name – the OCU – the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. And the fact that the division of the Russian Church operating in Ukraine has appropriated our name and uses it illegally does not affect the situation,” Zoria said.

According to him, according to the law "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations", the UOC "should have been renamed into the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine as early as 2019."

“But because of the notorious District Administrative Court of Kyiv, a number of pro-Russian deputies, including Novinsky, whom we mentioned, blocked the implementation of this law,” the OCU spokesman noted.

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that on January 31, 2019, the OCU was entered into the state register under the name of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Read also