Official on empty OCU churches:“Epifaniy just stands there blinking”

Dumenko. Photo: YouTube channel “We Are Ukraine”

The OCU has only half the number of priests it needs for its churches, leaving many of them closed. This is reported by Glavcom, citing official data.

“At the local level, officials and security service representatives openly complain that churches left behind after the UOC-MP since the moment of ‘de-occupation’ or exposure of clergy collaborating with the enemy often just stand abandoned. A vivid example is the Kharkiv region. Why? The explanation is simple: the OCU suffers from a chronic shortage of priests (as of the end of 2024, there were just over 4,500 priests for 8,300 parishes). The OCU leadership also complains about lack of funding,” journalists write.

They quote religious scholar Oleksandr Sahan, who says the percentage of UOC priests who agreed to transfer to the OCU is no more than 15–20.

According to him, the lack of clergy in the “transferred” churches is worsened by natural attrition – some priests leave, some die, and there is no one to replace them. Seminary recruitment is not covering this shortfall. “This is due to both the number of young people who feel a calling and the seminaries’ own limitations – in staff, infrastructure, and finances,” Sahan says. “This problem isn’t new – even in the Kyiv Patriarchate days it was a serious issue.”

Speaking with an “influential official,” Glavkom claims he expressed frustration at the situation and at the inactivity of the OCU’s primate. “Epiphany just blinks in confusion,” the outlet quotes him as saying.

According to sources, “inside the OCU there are already complaints about Metropolitan Epiphany’s managerial skills.” He is criticized for seeking “showiness” and his love of honors. “One of the latest examples – the OCU boasted that its leader received the title of Honorary Professor of the National University of Water and Environmental Engineering. And this is not the only such ‘title’ in Epiphany’s collection,” the report says.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that, according to Dumenko himself, UOC priests refuse to transfer to the OCU, saying they would rather renounce their priesthood than take such a step.

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