“Researchers” of сanonical еies: A сonfession

State Service for Ethnopolitics official Horshkov. Photo: Horshkov’s Facebook

“This is not a religious expert examination. It’s called a study. The research group consists of employees of our service,” Horshkov said.

And who exactly are these “service employees”? They’re not theologians. Not experts in church history or canon law. They’re ordinary bureaucrats. What is the value of their “research”? About the same as the private opinion of any layperson: a driver, a dairymaid, an accountant, or a sales manager.

Nevertheless, we already see this so-called “study” being paraded as an unassailable expert conclusion – a final, “ironclad” proof of the UOC’s subordination to Moscow.

Meanwhile, the quality of this “study” is laughable, especially during wartime with Russia: these officials completely ignore the UOC’s own official documents and base everything solely on documents from the aggressor state. And they themselves admit their work is not a “religious expert examination.”

Yet on the basis of this “non-expertise,” the state – which, according to the Constitution, is supposed to be separate from the Church – intends to crush thousands of parishes.

Just one more example of the country’s fundamental law being “on pause.”

Read also

On the mobilization of a priest as a sniper

A man who has chosen the path of the priesthood has no right to join the army and take up a weapon. And the very idea of killing another human being is all the more absurd.

On statistics: how many Orthodox, Muslims and Jews we have

Trust in the Razumkov Center's research methods on the topic of Orthodoxy is minimal.

Why helping children with cancer is a threat to state security

We should have long got used to the antics of some MPs, especially those who furiously hate the UOC. But they don't stop surprising us.

Is Ramadan closer to the authorities than Great Lent?

Have Muslims and Jews – who together make up just over one percent of the country’s population – become a privileged class? And yet Ukraine is widely seen as a Christian country.

Prayer for Zelensky

If Dumenko composes a “prayer” for a visit to parliament in which the president, the Rada, and the government are each listed separately, we understand that these words are addressed not to God, but to the people who invited him into the Rada.

DESS: We protect Muslims but ignore the UOC

The authorities rush to shield a small group of Muslims – many of them from other ethnic backgrounds – yet they demonstratively ignore the harassment of millions of Orthodox Ukrainians.