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.
Read also
Relics stolen from Catholic Church in Czechia
At the Basilica of Saints Lawrence and Zdislava, an unknown intruder smashed a display case and stole the saint’s 800-year-old skull.
Head of Germany’s largest media group: We must all become Zionists
The media executive urged Europeans to defend the Jewish state in order to preserve their own freedom and security.
Church сonsecrated after restoration in Zaporizhzhia Eparchy of UOC
Metropolitan Luke of Zaporizhzhia and Melitopol performed the rite of great consecration and celebrated the first Liturgy in the renovated church.
Sand for construction of Yermak’s residence brought from cemetery, MP says
MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak said that sand illegally removed from a cemetery in Ukrainka was used in the construction of the elite Dynasty cooperative in Kozyn.
Italian court recognizes family with three parents as legal
In Bari, the appellate court ordered authorities to register an adoption according to which a child is listed as having two "fathers" and one mother.
Archaeologists discover biblical Bethsaida on shore of Sea of Galilee
Researchers have discovered a first-century residential house beneath the apse of a Byzantine church and a mosaic inscription mentioning the Apostle Peter.