On a priest who voluntarily joined the OCU

Dumenko personally welcomes Vadym Hvozd from Kalynivka. Photo: OCU

Opponents often accuse the UOJ and other UOC-affiliated outlets of ignoring the cases of priests who voluntarily transfer to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). We wouldn’t mind reporting on such cases – but statistically, they are vanishingly rare compared to those who have refused to switch. Why is that? Judge for yourself.

The OCU's official website published a full article dedicated to the fact that Epifaniy Dumenko personally received the rector of the Exaltation of the Cross Church, Fr. Vadym Gvozd, from the village of Kalynivka in Zhytomyr Oblast.

Let’s not get into why a priest would decide – seven years after the creation of the OCU – to suddenly “follow the Tomos of Autocephaly.”

Let’s look at something else. Kalynivka is a tiny village in Zhytomyr Oblast, home to just a few hundred residents. According to official claims, over 1,500 parishes have joined the OCU voluntarily. So for the “primate of an autocephalous church,” meeting with such a cleric should be a routine event, hardly worth mentioning. In fact, Dumenko shouldn't be meeting with him at all, since he heads the Kyiv Diocese. The OCU has separate Zhytomyr–Ovruch and Zhytomyr–Polissia dioceses, and Hvozd belongs to one of those.

Nevertheless, Epifaniy received him personally – and the news of the meeting appears alongside coverage of Dumenko’s encounter with the Canadian ambassador, his sermon on the fifth Sunday of Lent, and other key events in the OCU’s life.

What does all this tell us? The answer is simple: voluntary transfers to the OCU are so rare that Dumenko has to personally promote them, even when they involve “outside” clergy from remote regions. And that speaks volumes.

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