Religious expert: We thought people would join OCU, but it did not happen

Liudmyla Filipovych, member of the State Ethnopolitics Commission. Photo: uatv.ua

Religious expert Liudmyla Filipovych said that she expected the Ukrainian people to voluntarily convert to the OCU from the UOC, but this did not happen. She said this on the air of Hromadske.

“I really hope for the wisdom of our people. We expected people to change their minds and make this transition voluntarily. But this is not a mass process,” she said.

A member of the DESS commission said that out of 12,500 parishes of the UOC, only 400 priests “expressed disagreement with the strategic line of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry.”

Commenting on the low number of transfers to the OCU, Filipovych asked the believers of the UOC in whom they believe – "in Jesus Christ or in their rector."

At the same time, Filipovych noted that the Church is a “tool”, whereas salvation “is given neither by the Church nor by the priest.”

As the UOJ reported, Liudmyla Filipovych, a member of the DESS commission, offered the monks of the Lavra three options for action – transfer to the OCU, Phanar, or leave for the Russian Federation.

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