Metropolitan Clement reports on DESS's refusal to approve new UOC Statute

Metropolitan Clement (Vecheria). Photo: news.church.ua

The head of the UOC Synodal Information and Education Department, Metropolitan Clement (Vecheria), said on the YouTube channel "Viche" that the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) refused to approve the new Statute on the governance of the UOC, submitted for consideration in early June 2022. 

Metropolitan Clement characterized the actions of the State Service as creating artificial barriers in state-church relations, noting that all previous editions of the Statutes on the governance of the UOC were approved seamlessly.

"I think that the State Service is currently the organization that invents 'stumbling blocks' for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, as it was this organization that was sent a copy of the updated Statute on the governance of the UOC for approval. To which we received a response that they will not approve it," the archbishop noted.

The metropolitan believes that if DESS had approved this Statute in accordance with how all previous editions of the Statute on the governance of the UOC were approved, then perhaps they "would have had much fewer questions".

At the Council held on May 27, 2022, at St. Panteleimon's Monastery in Feofania, amendments were made to the “Statute on the Governance of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church” aimed at achieving full autonomy and independence by removing all references to the Russian Orthodox Church, except for a citation of the 1990 Letter.

As reported by the UOJ, earlier the UOC spokesperson said that the document on independence from the ROC was sent to DESS back in 2022.

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