Ex-OCU cleric: OCU has no intellectuals of its own, they all came from UOC

Andriy Shymanovych. Photo: ahilla

Andriy Shymanovych, a cleric of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), who previously transitioned from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) under the jurisdiction of Epifaniy Dumenko, recently announced his decision to leave the OCU. The publication "Christians Against the War" shared his interview, in which the priest explained his reasons, particularly pointing out that the OCU is not interested in the systematic development of Ukrainian theology.

“If we set out to find a truly high academic level theological book published by a representative of the OCU over the past five years, since the granting of the Tomos, we won't find any,” the theologian noted. “... I believe this is a major issue, especially at a time when a whole series of theological books were published by the UOC during the same period.”

He believes that “if the church does not engage in self-education and, at the same time, in the education of both its parishioners and society as a whole, if it is only focused on counting heads in churches without caring about what is in those heads and souls, then what is the level of this church – and is it even a church at all?”

Father Andriy Shymanovych also added that “all the prominent people in the OCU today, those who are doing anything interesting, received their theological education and intellectual formation within the UOC.”

According to the cleric, there are a few active individuals in the OCU who are trying to do something locally, but they lack support from their leadership.

“I gradually realized that I was hitting a wall and was one of the very few lone enthusiasts – unfortunately, at the church-wide level, I saw no support for people like me in the OCU. Meanwhile, many books were concurrently being published in the UOC, including in Ukrainian. Ironically, it is the supposedly ‘pro-Russian’ UOC that has been involved in publishing Ukrainian-language theological and religious literature,” he said.

As previously reported, the Kyiv Theological Academy published books on the Theology of the Liturgy and the Synopsis of the Earthly Ministry of the Lord.

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