DESS head ready to "sketch out a model" for UOC's accession to OCU
Head of the State Ethnopolitics Service Viktor Yelensky. Photo: DESS
Viktor Yelensky, the head of the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS), stated that if the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy, approached him with the desire to join the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), he would offer a fair model, Interfax Ukraine reported on August 21.
Yelensky claims he can design a model where "there will be no humiliated or insulted, no victors or defeated, where everyone retains their position," as long as Metropolitan Onufriy approaches him.
As previously reported by the Union of Orthodox Journalists, Yelensky allowed the UOC to appeal to Local Churches with a request for a council.
Read also
Previously unknown sermons of St. Augustine discovered in ancient manuscript
Scholars have confirmed the authenticity of two previously unknown homilies by the great Church Father.
More than 800 anti-Christian incidents reported in France in 2025
France’s Interior Ministry has published a report on a sharp rise in violence against believers.
OCU cleric: Moscow strikes Lavra because OCU is there now
A "priest" of Dumenko's structure believes it is normal to ask God for vengeance against a believer.
Head of “Belarusian Autocephalous Church” prays with OCU in Pyriatyn
The leader of the BAOC, unrecognized in the Orthodox world, Sviatoslav Lohin, held a “joint prayer service” with military chaplains in Poltava Region.
Chief Rabbi discusses religious freedom in Ukraine with State Dept official
The participants discussed attacks on religious buildings and cases of pressure on believers.
Monastic tonsure performed in Khust Eparchy
At the diocesan metochion in the village of Synevyrska Poliana, Bishop Mark of Rakhiv performed the rite of rassophore tonsure.