MoJ to forcibly add 'MP' affix to UOC communities’ names in State Register

Ministry of Justice of Ukraine. Photo: Gordon

The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine plans to forcibly make changes to the State Register regarding the religious communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that have not indicated their affiliation with the Moscow Patriarchate in their names.

According to the Opendatabot website, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine has already independently renamed 42 UOC religious organizations in the State Register in the Chernivtsi region. Now the State Register lists the following name: "Religious organization did not indicate affiliation with the Moscow Patriarchate." It is reported that after this, 7 more communities voluntarily changed their name from the enforced one to the previous one. And three churches, after such renaming, joined the OCU.

"Before the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, amendments to the law 'On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations' came into force. According to the new rules, churches and religious institutions were required to change their name in the Unified State Register in such a way that it was clear that the organization belongs to the Moscow Patriarchate. Otherwise, such changes are made forcibly, and the organization receives a note in the EGR to its official name 'Religious organization did not indicate affiliation with the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate)'," officials explain their actions.

As reported by the UOJ, the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) published the results of a survey, according to which 63% of Ukrainians support the ban on the "UOC MP" in Ukraine, and a whopping 83% believe that the state should intervene in its activities. At first glance, the figures are impressive, it turns out that the overwhelming majority of Ukrainian citizens advocate for the "UOC MP" to be liquidated. In turn, American lawyer for the UOC, Robert Amsterdam, called the poll fraudulent.

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