Amsterdam: UOC parts refusing to join Phanar Exarchate will be liquidated

Poroshenko, Patriarch Bartholomew, and the primate of the OCU. Photo: press service of the Ecumenical Patriarchate

Robert Amsterdam, the head of the international law firm Amsterdam & Partners LLP, sent an urgent message to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky regarding the campaign against the UOC and the plans to ban the UOC in late August, followed by its merger with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, as reported by Strana.

Amsterdam analyzes a memo, which he believes was prepared by the Office of the President, outlining a strategic plan that includes the liquidation of the UOC as an independent entity and its potential unification with the OCU under the canonical and administrative control of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

"In order to carry out this transition, the Strategic Course Note sets out plans for UOC parishes to transfer to the “temporary omophorion of the Ecumenical Patriarchate,” which effectively means the creation of a new exarchate in Ukraine. This appears to be a stop-gap measure, which the Strategic Course Note describes as “a canonical alternative through the mediation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate with their [i.e. the
parishes] subsequent subordination to the OCU with the help of the exarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.' No consideration is given to the challenges posed by Orthodox canon law to fulfilling this plan. Nor does the document consider the broad opposition that will greet this plan by the UOC and global Orthodoxy," writes the lawyer.

According to the plan outlined in the Note, those UOC parishes that refuse to transition to the OCU will be subject to liquidation as legal entities and religious organizations. The document also states that following this, "an agreement will be signed with the remaining leadership “which will provide for the deprivation of the said religious organization of benefits or cancellation of its state registration in case of open or veiled political and other activities to the detriment of national security and contrary to the national interests of Ukraine.” In no way will this be considered a permissible restriction to the law on the freedom of religion and belief under the ECHR," noted Amsterdam as he documented the "roadmap" for the liquidation of the UOC.

As previously reported by the UOJ, a defender of the UOC sent a letter to President Zelensky regarding the creation of a Phanar exarchate in Ukraine and warned him against this move.

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