DESS: Almost 1,400 parishes "transferred" from UOC to OCU over past 3 years
The DESS head Viktor Yelensky. Photo: DESS website
Approximately 1378 religious communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church "transferred" to the OCU during the years 2022–2025, stated the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience. This was reported by Interfax-Ukraine.
According to the State Service's data, 483 communities were legally "transferred" in 2022, 471 in 2023, 233 in 2024, and 191 in 2025. The largest number of the so-called transfers was recorded in the Kyiv (306), Khmelnytskyi (295), Vinnytsia (159), Zhytomyr (128), and Cherkasy (104) regions. No such changes were registered in the Luhansk, Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia regions.
Officials explained that their data are based on the official registrations of religious organizations in regional administrations. According to them, the process of "transfers" is accompanied by legal and property disputes, especially in the western regions of Ukraine.
As reported by the UOJ, Bishop Pimen stated that there were only three voluntary transfers in the Rivne Eparchy. According to the UOC parishes themselves, decisions on transfers are often made without considering the opinion of the communities, which becomes a subject of legal proceedings and appeals to government bodies.
Read also
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.
Israeli soldiers receive jail terms for mocking statue of the Virgin Mary
Those involved in the act of sacrilege in the village of Debel will spend several weeks behind bars for desecrating a statue of the Mother of God.
Serbian Church officially receives back land of 15th-century monastery
An agreement was signed in Belgrade transferring the territory of the ancient Vojlovica Monastery to the Banat Eparchy.
Pat Daniel comments on conflict between Phanar bishop and community in Turkey
The Bulgarian Primate believes that the hierarch of the Constantinople Patriarchate should not have forced the Bulgarian community in Edirne to serve in Greek.