OCU “metropolitan” laments slow “transitions” and post-seizure “tension”

Ioann Yaremenko. Photo: Suspilne

Cherkasy “metropolitan” of the OCU, I. Yaremenko, in a comment to Suspilne, complained that the trend of transfers from the UOC to the OCU is insufficient – and that after forceful seizures people feel “tension.”

“This year in the Cherkasy region, 20 parishes joined the Orthodox Church of Ukraine that had previously been under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. Last year there were 26 such transfers. The trend continues, yes, but it is still weak, because many parishes of the Moscow Patriarchate remain,” Yaremenko complained.

According to him, many UOC communities still remain in the Cherkasy region – around 300.

Yaremenko assured that transfers to the OCU should happen voluntarily, because when churches are seized by force, problems arise.

“If a community cannot enter for some reason, it means there is a part of the community that resists. If you take this church by force and seize it, then, accordingly, this tension remains inside the village community,” the “hierarch” stated.

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that the OCU seized the Kazan Church of the UOC in Chyhyryn.

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