Dumenko: UOC priests say they’d rather give up priesthood than join us

Serhiy Dumenko. Photo: Screenshot from the "We Are Ukraine" YouTube channel

The head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), Epifaniy Dumenko, stated in an interview with Apostrophe that clergy and believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) are reluctant to join his organization. He attributed this to their adherence to the ideology of the “Russian world.”

“Unfortunately, not many clergy are joining the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The ideology of the ‘Russian world,’ unfortunately, has deeply infiltrated the minds of both clergy and ordinary believers, who are trying to remain loyal to the Moscow Patriarchate to the very end,” Dumenko said.

According to him, members of the UOC allegedly believe that “without Moscow there is no salvation, that grace operates only with Moscow, that salvation is there,” and that “they have, in a sense, become adherents of this ‘Russian world’ ideology.”

He also shared that “many clergy have said that they are even willing to leave the priesthood entirely, to abandon their ministry, rather than join the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.”

Earlier, the UOJ reported that Dumenko claimed his organization now has 9,000 communities.

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