OCU cleric on community “transfers” from UOC: We will need another 45 years

Roman Hryshchuk. Photo: Facebook

On January 12, 2026, an OCU cleric from Bukovyna, Roman Hryshchuk, published a post on his Facebook page about the process of the so-called “transfers” of religious communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to the OCU, in which he summed up the results of this campaign.

In his message, Hryshchuk thanked supporters of the OCU for bringing Chernivtsi Region to first place in Ukraine by the number of UOC churches that had been “transferred.” “Your work will not be appreciated by your contemporaries, but it will be appreciated by God and by history. As Mother Teresa of Calcutta said: ‘What you build will be destroyed, but build anyway,’” he wrote.

The OCU cleric described UOC parishes as being under “Moscow occupation.” “Every parish freed from Moscow occupation is a step closer to Ukraine’s victory. Every parish that remains in Moscow occupation is a step closer to Ukraine’s defeat,” he wrote. According to Hryshchuk, communities must be “liberated” not after the war ends, but “for victory.”

At the same time, he acknowledged that the real re-registration figures remain low. By Hryshchuk’s estimate, at the current pace – about 200 parishes per year out of a total of roughly 9,000 – the process could drag on for another 45 years. “Although, overall, the results are not very encouraging,” he noted.

Referring to data from the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS), the OCU cleric reported that in 2025, 191 UOC religious communities were re-registered into the OCU. In total, from 2019 to 2025, according to these statistics, 1,754 parishes were transferred to the OCU.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that an OCU cleric is demanding 100,000 for “suffering” allegedly caused by a sermon of Metropolitan Theodosiy.

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